In memoriam : Mr. Edouard Haspeslagh

Edouard Haspeslagh passed away in the early morning of Friday

25 November. He was the founder of Haspeslagh NV and chairman of the

Board of Directors of the Ardo Group. His passing is a great loss to the

family and to the company.

’Vegetables’ have always been a major part of Edouard Haspeslagh’s life.

He started out as a farmer with fifty hectares of land near Ardooie in the

1950s. He initially grew crops to be supplied to the canning industry and

established Haspeslagh NV in 1960 for this purpose. His ambitions reached

further, and in 1977 he entered the new, unfamiliar world of deep-frozen

technology. ’It is the future’, Edouard Haspeslagh said. He had thoroughly

studied the process and the market opportunities for fresh-frozen

vegetables and he made his decision. Ardovries NV was established and

once the compressor and production line were delivered to the family farm,

the first fresh-frozen vegetables were produced.

From then on Edouard Haspeslagh succeeded in expanding his company

year after year. Starting with the French-speaking part of Belgium, he then

went on to France, the UK, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, Denmark and

Austria. With every takeover or expansion, his first concern was to look for

new synergies and opportunities to broaden the technical and commercial

expertise.

In 1995 Edouard Haspeslagh passed the torch to his four sons, but this did

not stop him from going to work every day to talk to the people and to keep

up to date with the business. For him, people came first.

So Edouard Haspeslagh was right: the future started at minus eighteen

degrees Celsius. His entrepreneurial spirit, enthusiasm and values will live on

within his family and the Ardo Group.