“Stimulate continuous growth in companies and organizations, by shaping and improving safe, quality and sustainable processes, for and by people. That’s what the Amelior Group stands for.”
Over the years, Amelior has become the reference in Flanders in the field of QHSEE (Quality, Health & Safety, Environment and Energy). It offers education, counseling as well as temporary on-the-job support. Amelior Group joins the forces of three companies as of today. “The synergy between Amelior, PVO and Forma allows us to offer a complete approach to our customers, not only analyzing and optimizing processes, but also ensuring deep understanding and hands-on execution,” said Pascal Anckaert.
Dominique Santens (PVO), Pascal Anckaert (Amelior) and Stijn Mahieu (Forma)
Amelior initially acquired PVO of Kortrijk in late 2023. PVO is an expert in “operational excellence”: improving processes, eliminating losses and innovating work organization. PVO’s clients include Colruyt and Atlas Copco. These are also customers of Amelior, in addition to Barco, VITO, Siemens, Materialise and many others.
It demonstrates the complementarity of the services of Amelior and PVO. “We have known each other for a long time and actually we wanted to set up a collaboration,” recalls Pascal Anckaert. “However, it has become much more. It quickly became clear to us that merging would be a win-win.”
PVO continues to operate under its own brand name, maintaining its identity within the group. PVO’s five employees will move to Amelior’s offices, also in Kortrijk, during 2024. “I was mainly looking for a partner who can grow us geographically. Amelior’s operational excellence offering is also very complementary to ours in terms of content. And within a larger organization, we feel more stability and growth opportunities for our people,” said Dominique Santens, General Manager of PVO.
Reliable partner rather than supplier
Barely three months later, a third party joined them. Amelior also acquired Forma of Ingelmunster. Again, an addition to services is realized. Forma is distinguished by a strong focus on practical implementation of quality and security policies and information security. Included in the acquisition of Forma are a number of software applications.
With a wide range of practical safety training and some 120 ongoing consulting projects, including in many West and East Flanders hospitals, Forma strengthens the group’s portfolio. “Our collaboration was destined to offer the full range of services within our expertise. We can now support our customers even more with their questions and challenges,” said Stijn Mahieu, General Manager of Forma.
With the 11 additional employees of Forma – which will also continue to operate under its own brand name – Amelior Group has over 45 employees in total. The cumulative turnover of the three companies is 9 million euros.
“Together we offer a complete service, ranging from efficiency improvement, understanding and control of business processes, to the actual translation into practice,” clarifies Pascal Anckaert.
The group confirms its role as a partner, rather than a mere supplier, with a wide range of services that respond to the complex and evolving needs of the market.
Traveling to Japan
For more than fifty years, Amelior has focused on developing, implementing and improving efficient management systems. Everything began in 1970 when a group of West Flanders entrepreneurs visited the World’s Fair in Tokyo. The program also included a series of company visits to rebuilt Japanese companies (after WWII). What they saw there in terms of efficiency and quality production made mouths drop open.
They returned to Flanders with terror in their hearts. They then decided to set up an organization to spread that idea of quality among West Flanders companies. Thus arose the non-profit organization Centrum voor Kwaliteitszorg West-Vlaanderen, which was renamed Amelior in 2001.
It delved into business processes, safety, quality, well-being at work, environmental issues, energy and climate challenges, people management. With the advent of quality standards in the 1980s (later ISO 9001), the needs became greater, the demand increased. The organization grew and prospered.
“European regulations have been and are permanently becoming more extensive and more stringent,” says General Manager Pascal Anckaert. “But even apart from that, companies are facing increasing challenges both in terms of sustainability, transparency, but also in the ‘War for Talent.’ With the Amelior Group, we offer a conclusive answer: efficient, high-quality, safe and sustainable processes. Those who work on this are in a strong position to face the challenges of the future with confidence.”
Dominique Santens (PVO), Pascal Anckaert (Amelior) and Stijn Mahieu (Forma)
