There was a party at VRD on Friday and Saturday: the family business celebrated its 40th anniversary and was finally able to move into its brand new distribution center, a project that took more than 10 years.
Raoul Van Raemdonck started his activities in 1986 with a single truck. The company quickly specialized in distribution and opened its first warehouse in 1993, at a time when few carriers were investing in logistics real estate. Several other warehouses followed in Temse, but also in Arlon in 2007. At the same time, VRD was at the forefront of technological innovations with the purchase of a first hybrid DAF truck in 2010 and a first electric truck in 2020.
Since 2015, Raoul Van Raemdonck and his wife Gaby have gradually passed the baton to their children Matthias (active at VRD for 17 years) and Liesbeth (active in the company for 15 years); In fact, it was they who led the short ceremonial meeting on Friday evening, before their father Raoul, very moved, closed it. It is true that the Van Raemdonck family had to regret the death of André, Raoul’s brother, a few days ago at the age of 66.
The festivities surrounding VRD’s 40th anniversary were also the opportunity to discover the brand new distribution center built along the N16 in Bornem, on the site where the old Calberson buildings used to be. A 12,000 m² building with mezzanine, intended for cross-docking, which took more than ten years to get off the ground, as VRD encountered resistance from some local residents, even though the warehouse is located in an industrial area. And the VRD teams have hardly had time to rest on their laurels, because the first goods were brought there on Sunday and the first delivery rounds already left the new warehouse on Monday morning!
