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Historical

The origins of the CLOSE Group go back to 1932, the year in which Victor CLOSE secured entry into the Business Register of Liège (Belgium) as a central heating plumber.

The Second World War interrupted activities. Victor CLOSE had to undergo 5 long years of captivity, but on his return he joined with his brother Joseph to form the SPRL CLOSE FRERES, which was already in existence as a family business.

It was Victor's son José, took up the activities who on the death of his father in 1962. At his instigation, ANCIENS. ETABLISSEMENTS VICTOR CLOSE Sprl was born in 1965.

In 1971, José was joined by his brother Gérard, a Master of Economic Sciences of Lille University

During the nineteen-eighties ANC. ETS. VICTOR CLOSE Sprl, expanded the range of its activities by establishing a workshop for the manufacture of sheaths as well as an " electricity and controls " department. The company was now employing some forty people and had a turnover equivalent to 3.5 million €. This was still modest, but SPRL ANC. ETS. VICTOR CLOSE, which had become CLOSE SA in 1982, contained the seed of all the assets on which its subsequent growth would be based

The arrival of the third generation will make it possible for the family company appreciably to increase the number of its fields of activity still further.

José CLOSE's youngest son, Michel joined the company in 1986 and was followed in 1987 by his eldest brother Pierre, who assumed the general management of the Group. Growth had taken off.

Year	CA
1989	6.397.041,14
1990	8.403.714,44
1991	10.365.345,48
1992	15.171.133,29
1993	9.728.482,22
1994	15.891.288,77
1995	19.028.692,36
1996	25.724.457,67
1997	23.277.265,98
1998	26.803.805,46
1999	28.787.156,14
2000	30.217.824,04
2001	44.882.811,19
2002	49.082.121,28
2003	42.742.000,00
2004	53.861.466,69
2005	50.610.321,02
2006	50.860.058,51

In addition to Gérard, Michel and Pierre CLOSE, the management of the Group is at present in the hands of 3 shareholder-managers, namely :

Monsieur Salvatore VENDITTI, Deputy Managing Director of CLOSE SA who joined the Group in 1989.
Monsieur PHILIPPAERTS, Deputy Managing Director of BORZEE NV, who began his career with that company in 1971.
Monsieur Gérard CAPRASSE, Deputy Managing Director CLOSE Luxembourg SA, who joined the Group in 1989.

Under the energetic management of Mr Paul Wardell, CLOSE is positioning itself in new markets in the United Kingdom, in France and North Africa.