An anniversary magazine without getting out the box full of old photos? Impossible! Reminisce with us about some of the wonderful moments that shaped and colored our family business.
We are writing 1975. The year of the end of the Vietnam War, the birth of Microsoft and the flourishing disco life. But closer to home, something else beautiful is blossoming. On Kempische Steenweg 13 in Hasselt, Paul Put started SKP as a one-man business. From the heart of Limburg, that's where it all had to happen. With a vintage Volkswagen van, Paul headed for his very first customer: Couwberghs nv in Eindhout.
Does the name Allegany-Longdoz mean anything to you? Or maybe ALZ rings a bell? The picture above shows our warehouse in Koersel filled with chainwork for this big Genk steel player, now known as Aperam. Today, it is one of the largest stainless steel producers in the world and we have been allowed to call them our loyal customer for 46 years.
A moment to cherish in the snow between Paul Put's father and his granddaughters Gitte and Joke. This photo was taken in 1978, in front of the gates of SKP's new base of operations in Koersel near Beringen. From 150 to 450 m2, a solid but necessary expansion after three very productive years in Hasselt. Local residents had to get used to the activity of Paul, or ‘the one with his cables’.
SKP is a family business pure and simple. Indeed, Paul's first employee was his father, the 2nd his father-in-law. Anything but a challenge, dixit Paul himself. The same could not be said of the investment in this 300-tonne hydraulic press to press cable loops. 420,000 old Belgian francs, which today amounts to around 45,000 euros, if we take inflation into account. . Interesting fact: the machine is still showing off in our warehouse today.
In the early 1980s, all attention went to our brand new service truck. In this mobile showroom, customers had the opportunity to discover our products up close and learn all about them at the same time. An innovative alternative to the classic catalogue, once with the proud Paul Put at the wheel. Until he realised afterwards that he did not have the appropriate driving licence. The signal to recruit a permanent driver, with the required documents.
The fact that safety is one of the foundations of SKP has to do with the pioneering role we have taken in this field. For example, we were the very first in the Belgian market to invest in our own tensile testing machine. This allowed us to test the strength and durability of our materials ourselves, all in accordance with the official testing rules. The start of our good name as safety guards in our sector.
In 1984, we were one of the few players in Belgium to start our own production of lifting and lashing belts. Paul's wife Mia and her sister-in-law - yes, Mia - also helped ensure that our customers received their custom-made hoisting and lashing belts within 24 hours. Each time, of course, according to the standards of the quality system of the time.
In 1990, after the interim move to Koersel, we settled at our current address in Beringen. Work started under the approving - and dreaming - eye of Paul's wife Mia. Just under a year later, we were able to unpack the moving boxes. Just try to imagine it the next time you walk in our door.
Exactly ten years ago, we celebrated another great anniversary: SKP's fortieth. We did so in style and at an unprecedented height: Dinner in the Sky. Celebrating forty years of success together among our clean colleagues some fifty metres above the ground: the wide smiles on everyone's faces say it all, don't they?
An image that many of you will remember vividly, but by now belongs to the history books: our former entrance hall. This is what our offices looked like between the 1990s and 2000s, a period accompanied by ups and downs for founder Paul Put. A cut-throat competitive struggle in the 1990s. A shortening of his life by several years, as he puts it in his own words. But a period that we overcame together with verve.