While the French company has already been offering its services in Belgium for some time, Bulle de Linge will soon have a new complex with an industrial laundry in Hannut. The company will be constructing a building, the permit for which is currently being finalized, which will create 70 jobs.

But what is Bulle de Linge? "It's a company I set up in 2007, based on a fairly simple idea. In the textile care and laundry sector, the idea was to create a company specializing in the care of the personal linen of nursing home residents. And exclusively the residents' personal linen, i.e. their clothes and underwear. We collect the linen from the nursing homes. We process it at our production sites and then return it," explains Thomas Labrunye, CEO of Bulle de Linge.

The company initially developed in France. "It all started with the observation that there were no offers for outsourcing this service. Retirement homes were therefore obliged to offer this service in-house," adds Thomas Labrunye, who represents the sixth generation of a family of launderers.

Bulle de Linge quickly became a success in France, and today boasts 12 production sites covering the entire country. The company then expanded into Spain, Switzerland and... Belgium. "We have a factory in northern France, 5 kilometers from the Belgian border. So we decided to offer our services in Belgium with production assured in France. We hired a sales rep to canvass. All this was in 2019, a little before the Covid period, which slowed us down a little. After Covid, we went on to develop a customer base in Belgium. Two years ago, we decided to set up a production site in Belgium," continues our contact.

"After contacts with SPI in Liège and The Wallonia Export & Investment Agency, we opted for a site in Hannut. Today, we're ready to start work. We're waiting to receive planning permission. If all goes well, we hope to open the production site this autumn," adds Thomas Labrunye.

Why did you choose Hannut? "First and foremost for the workforce. We have a laundry business where very little can be mechanized. No two garments are the same. So we were looking for an area where we could recruit staff. What's more, we have a constraint. Our business is logistics. We have trucks that go out to customers twice a week. So we can't be isolated in the middle of the countryside. It was therefore important to be close to major roads. In Hannut, we're right on the Brussels-Liège freeway, two major cities where we have a lot of customers," he explains.

As part of his development process in Wallonia, Thomas Labrunye has been in contact with The Wallonia Export & Investment Agency representatives. "We talked a lot about development opportunities and the choice of land. We also talked about investment grants, but we weren't eligible. But the discussions were very interesting", concludes Thomas Labrunye.