English - Nooteboom Giants on the Road Magazine English - Nr. 5 - 2018 | Page 12

GIANTS ON THE ROAD ■  Kranen Desutter is active in Belgium and northern France BIRTH OF THE DESUTTER GROUP Jan: “In 2006 we decided to present ourselves commercially under the name ‘Desutter Group’. On the trucks, tractors, trailers and cranes you will still see the name Destrans, Ville de Courtrai or Kranen Desutter, but they are separate companies with one head office in Harelbeke. At the same time we looked at the house style. We quickly agreed that the red colour of Ville de Courtrai should be the basic colour of our house style. That colour red is – coincidentally – exactly the same as the Nooteboom red colour.” MOVE TO HARELBEKE 12 Frederik: “Between 2000 and 2010 the Desutter Group grew year after year. We operated from two hired locations. In 2009 we bought a plot in Harelbeke to organise all the activities in one single location. Next to our office we built a large workshop with two grease pits, washing bay and our own filling station. In 2011 we moved into the marvellous premises. We thought then that the space would be sufficient for a period of ten years. But our activities in construction, industry and infrastructure are growing so rapidly that we are running out of space again in Harelbeke too.” ■  Jan and Frederik Desutter ■  The low maintenance costs make the Ballasttrailer an attractive option for Desutter