High-tech, ultra-flexible and Belgian. The advance of the new manufacturing industry.

Production in Belgium?

For years it seemed it was dying off, but recently the tide has turned. Increasingly, ultra-flexible and high-tech companies are taking their production from low-wage countries and re-establishing it here. The Belgian approach to the manufacturing industry will soon be followed elsewhere in Europe.

The ultra-modern, high-tech and spotlessly clean production hall of electronics manufacturer E.D.&A. immediately sets the tone: this is the new face of the manufacturing industry in Western Europe. The family business has been developing and designing all kinds of electronic controllers for machine builders for more than 35 years and includes the German firm Miele among its customers. Until 2012, actual production was almost entirely outsourced to low-wage countries in Eastern Europe or the Far East. When current CEO Gert D’Handschotter took over the management of his father’s company in 2009, he decided on a drastic change of course.

Wage costs

The key question here is: if the high labour costs in our country - and by extension throughout Western Europe - have for years been the argument for moving work with relatively little added value to low-wage countries then why does this factor apparently play a smaller role today? The production companies and the jobs resulting from the new manufacturing industry differ fundamentally from what the traditional industry once offered here.