Aurubis nominated for Flanders International Business Awards 2023

Meet the 9 nominees competing for the first-ever Flanders International Business Awards 2023

Brussels, 5 July 2023 – With the Flanders International Business Awards, for the first time, FIT is crowning a Flanders-based exporter, a foreign investor in Flanders and a startup during a joint event on 20 September. The first competition round has been completed: the professional jury shortened the list of 100 contenders to 3 times 3 nominees. In the Exporter of the Year category, Dewulf (Roeselare), Globachem (Sint-Truiden) and IndigoCare (Tessenderlo) are competing against each other. In the Foreign Investor of the Year category, investment projects by Germany’s Aurubis (Olen and Beerse) and US companies Pfizer (Puurs) and Plug (Antwerp) are in the running. Meanwhile, Loop Earplugs (Berchem), Sensolus (Ghent) and TechWolf (Ghent) are contending in the Startup of the Year category.

“Through the Flanders International Business Awards, we discover, highlight and crown the stories behind internationally entrepreneurial Flanders. All 100 award candidates, not just the nominees that made the shortlist, from the small startups and SMEs to the multinationals, have presented strong cases. Now, the nominees are ready to compete to be the first to receive the titles of Exporter, Foreign Investor and Startup of the Year on 20 September.”  – Joy Donné, CEO of Flanders Investment & Trade

 

3 nominees for Exporter of the Year (in alphabetical order)

Dewulf

For nearly 80 years, Dewulf has been developing and building agricultural machinery for potato and root crop cultivation. Today, the third generation is at the helm of the West Flanders-based company. Besides its headquarters in Roeselare, it has branches in the Netherlands and Romania.

Through an intricate dealer network, the machines are sold in 37 countries worldwide. In major agricultural markets such as the US and France, dealers work together with local staff who provide technical support and after-sales service.

Based on farmers’ specific needs, Dewulf’s R&D team works continuously on technical improvements. Meanwhile, the in-house developed machine configurator and operating software are designed to increase the ease of use. What’s more, both the manufacturer and its customers will soon be able to monitor and adjust the performance of each machine via a cloud platform.

Location: Roeselare
Number of employees: 185 FTEs (Belgium)
Turnover (2022): € 87,430,316.03
Share of exports in turnover (2022): 85%
Share of non-EU countries in exports: 33%
www.dewulfgroup.com

Globachem

This first-generation family business from Sint-Truiden was established some 20 years ago and helps food growers keep their crops healthy. In this way, Globachem wants to contribute to sufficient, safe and sustainably grown food for the rising world population. They achieve this by developing, registering and internationally marketing a wide range of existing and innovative crop protection products. Since the start, their focus has been on major agricultural countries such as France, Germany, the UK, Poland and, later, Brazil. Today, the company is active in 39 countries, through a network of distributors and its own branch in Brazil.

Globachem has 2,000 IP registrations in its portfolio, both for existing products and its own developments or improved formulations. Half the team works on innovation. In the research greenhouse, called the Greennovation Center, the R&D team screens new products, preferably of natural origin.

Location: Sint-Truiden
Number of employees: 73.9 FTEs (Belgium)
Turnover (2022): € 287,966,588.61
Share of exports in turnover (2022): 95%
Share of non-EU countries in exports: 23%
www.globachem.com

IndigoCare

IndigoCare emerged in 2009 as a health tech spin-off of the Belgian telecom group ESSEC. The company from Tessenderlo develops and produces iCall, a smart call system for hospitals and residential care centers. IndigoCare deliberately adopted an international focus from square one.

In addition to healthcare-related calls, iCall also allows data to be shared between patients and medical staff. The system’s compatibility and flexibility are unique, allowing it to be plugged into existing cable infrastructure and integrated with existing alarm systems. IndigoCare’s R&D team also works closely with research institutions such as imec, Flanders’ strategic research center for digital and nanotech.

Today, more than 100,000 beds at hospitals and care centers in 56 countries are already equipped with iCall. To accelerate the growth of their partner network worldwide, IndigoCare developed the user-friendly and inspiring training platform ICE Academy.

Location: Tessenderlo
Number of employees: 11.27 FTEs (Belgium)
Turnover (2022): € 2,809,126.97
Share of exports in turnover (2022): 79%
Share of non-EU countries in exports: 20%
www.indigocare.com