The prestigious Belgian 'Entrepreneur of the Year®' award celebrates its 30th anniversary with an interesting series of interviews. For two weeks, the winners of the past decades look back on their journey and give their opinion on how Flemish entrepreneurship can continue to inspire. Today in the newspaper 'De Tijd': an interview with our Group CEO Guido Vanherpe, looking back on the boost this award gave our company in 2012.
30 years of 'Entrepreneur of the Year®' in the spotlight with interview Guido Vanherpe
A selection from the interview
What does it mean for your company to be ‘Entrepreneur of the Year®?
"In 2012, we were still relatively unknown. I often told our employees that we were doing well, but we still received little recognition from the outside. The Entrepreneur of the Year® award changed that. For the first time, we received a prestigious award that confirmed that we were on the right track as a company and as a team. This recognition was particularly valuable and created great pride within our company. It gave us the confidence to continue in the same vein and grow even faster. We were on stage with about fifty people at the time, and even twelve years later, that recognition is still a goosebumps moment."
Has LLBG changed since it became Entrepreneur of the Year®?
"As far as our DNA is concerned, we have hardly changed. Our company culture and values have remained largely the same. But the confidence we gained then and the external recognition enabled us to attract new talent and strengthen our leadership. In terms of scale, we have become a completely different company. In the past twelve years, we have achieved more turnover than in the previous 75 years. We grew from about 500 million euros in 2012 to 1.3 billion euros today. In 2024, we made the leap to North America, tapping into a new promising continent. Our team has also grown from around 2,000 to more than 5,000 employees in recent years."