Claude van Houtte – 75th birthday

Claude van Houtte celebrated his 75th birthday in November. 1961 he started working for the Manumotors company which was also involved in the brick and tile industry. Claude van Houtte enjoyed the confidence of many Belgian brickmakers. Born in Brügge, he had a particularly large number of customers in Flanders. Together with the Karl Walter, Trafö, Georg Willy (Frey), Händle and Robert Thomas companies, he was already building complete works in 1962. In 1976 Claude van Houtte took over the sole representation of the Keller company in Belgium and as a next step the representation of the Hubert Sneek company, Netherlands. In 1980 Händle entrusted him with the sole representation for Belgium, as did also the Robert Thomas, De Boer, Hellmich, jmker and Tebberman companies. In 2001 he celebrated 40 years of activity for Händle and in summer 2002 he concluded the sole representation of this company in Belgium. For his customers, Claude van Houtte was a dynamic, well-organized and correct discussion partner – who did more than just sell. Today both his son and his grandson are working for Händle, something he is particularly proud of.