“We appreciate flexibility in Domus, we appreciate very much their drive in getting their machines better and also in the development of energy efficiencies”
Continuing our series of interviews with managers and representatives from the DOMUS offices around the world, today we talk to Johan Stuyven of LDL from Belgium.
-
First of all, we would like you to tell us a bit about how LDL started.
JOHAN: We started up in 2002, and then we took over another company. It was an existing company it was working with about ten people.
And then we kept growing. We took over other companies. And now in 2022, 20 years later, we work with about 50 and 60 people. We do a turnover about 15 million euro, and we have about 40,000 machines in the market. That’s the position that is today. But the start of the company was taking over another company.
- How did your partnership with DOMUS begin?
JOHAN: We started up with DOMUS in 2018, and the start of the relationship was because we took over one company, Unibell, who was a Belgian company, and the company was a dealer with DOMUS machines.
And that way we had a first contact with Domus. We met the people of Domus, and in the first context, we were impressed by the energy of the company, let’s say, and the people in the company. But also we saw they were very motivated and they were developing high quality machines. And that’s why from our side, we were motivated to continue the collaboration with them.
-
What is LDL’s main line of business?
JOHAN: In fact, the industrial laundries are going in evolution to more industrialization, in a way they are working with washing tunnels, ironing streets, and in fact they don’t have quite a lot of machines that we sell. So for us, the market of OPL is much more important than the market of the industrial laundries. We sell some individual machines to them, but not in a great quantity, and not in the same quantity as we sell machines to the OPL market.
-
What is the current situation of the industrial laundry business in Belgium?
JOHAN: In fact, the industrial laundries are going in evolution to more industrialization, in a way they are working with washing tunnels, ironing streets, and in fact they don’t have quite a lot of machines that we sell. So for us, the market of OPL is much more important than the market of the industrial laundries. We sell some individual machines to them, but not in a great quantity, and not in the same quantity as we sell machines to the OPL market.
- What are the main opportunities for growth in Belgium nowadays?
JOHAN: I think we have to continue our strategy and working on the OPL market. It may sound strange, but most of the machines we have in the market are industrial machines. And I think there is a big potential for what we call the extended home market in which it’s, let’s say the washing machines that do between three and five cycles a day. Industrial machines, in our belief, do more than five cycles a day, and in that market we have already a good position. But in the extended home market we believe there is a lot of growth opportunities and the heavy professional washing machines by Domus, in our belief, are very good machines. And as I see, they are developing also heat pump dryers. So we believe that is the future.
- About self-service laundries, what do you think is the situation in Belgium?
JOHAN: We do sell that, but in Belgium, the market of the coin laundries is a market with a big maturity. Every city has more than one automatic laundry. So we can say there is a kind of saturation. The market of the coin laundry is mostly the renewing of machines and very little new coin shops. So it’s an important market for us in terms of renewing machines. But in fact, I come back to the point that we believe that the most important market with potential of growth is the OPL market.
France and Belgium are two countries in which there are a huge amount of coin laundering. In the past it was very good for us because we build up quite a lot of coin shops. But now when you have 2 coin shops, let’s say, in a city of 8000 people, there is no place for more.
The only thing that most businesses do is renewing these machines.
- Based on your experience, what are the most important strengths of DOMUS?
JOHAN: We appreciate flexibility in Domus, we appreciate very much their drive in getting their machines better and also in the development of energy efficiencies. I think in that way, DOMUS is doing a good job and we appreciate them and we are very happy to work together with them.
Thank you very much Johan & Frank for your words and your time. It was a real pleasure to talk to you, and we hope to see each other again very soon.
