Everyone’s solidarity has been exemplary, as illustrated by the establishment of the “Lhoist Solidarity Fund”, to which employees and shareholders alike have contributed to provide complementary assistance and relief to those who were most affected.
The Lhoist group is acutely aware of its impact, striving to do better each year. In addition to its commitment to bringing purity and efficiency, the group has now set itself a course for the future and carbon neutrality. The Lhoist Group is pursuing its journey to Net Zero, making every effort to build valuable partnerships that will contribute to improving the environment, people’s lives, and our society.
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic deeply impacted every aspect of people’s lives and work. Extreme weather events around the world compounded the situation, affecting many of the communities in which the group lives and operates. Once again, people rose to the challenge, making it happen and proving the resilience of the Lhoist workforce. The company’s teams rethought their approach to working together while assuring an onsite presence and prioritizing a healthy and safe workplace.
The group strengthened its European footprint with the acquisition in 2014 of Steetley Dolomite, allowing Lhoist to supply dolime to customers in the UK steel industry for the first time, as in addition to providing an additional supply source for its non-UK dolime customers. The acquisition of Steetley also added new products to the Lhoist portfolio, paving the way for further opportunities to supply dolime to the refractory and steel industries. That same year Lhoist acquired Heidelberg Cement's Istein and Walhalla lime plants in Germany.
In 2011, Leon Albert Lhoist passed away suddenly. He is remembered as a thoughtful person, who attached real importance to the human aspect of the group's management.
A new research and development center was built in Nivelles, south of Brussels, recruiting dozens of researchers and technicians from highly diverse backgrounds and sharing the best practices of industries and markets.
The group would take nine years to make its first significant and successful incursion in the Brazilian market. In the process, it also built its strategic base for the whole of South America. The Lhoist Group also diversified in minerals, with the acquisition in 2006 of Franklin Industrial Minerals in the United States. Lhoist pursued its expansion in Asia and South America.
The Lhoist Group had a unique strategic position, surrounding Germany, the largest lime market in Europe. This would enable the group to gradually establish itself in Germany and eventually become its largest producer of lime and dolomite. At the same time, Lhoist established itself in the Netherlands, Denmark, England, southern France, Spain and Portugal. On the other side of the Atlantic, the group built its largest lime plant in the United States at Saint Genevieve on the banks of the Mississippi.
In 1992, Lhoist became the first foreign investor in Czechoslovakia's mineral industry when it acquired VCs. The borders of Europe were being redrawn and the group achieved its remarkable ambition thanks to its investments in Belgium, in eastern France, in Czechoslovakia and in Poland.
During the second half of the 1970s, the Lhoist Group made a great leap, crossing the Atlantic to invest in quarries in North America. In 1981, the Lhoist group took a minority stake in Chemical Lime after which it went on to acquire Gen Stars Lime Division in 1986 and Allied Lime in 1989. Lhoist had become the largest lime producer of the period in the United States in just ten years.
Leon Lhoist died in 1971. After his death, however, the third generation remained very active. Raymond Lhoist and his sister Elizabeth Berghmans consolidated the group. Soon the 4th generation - Jean Pierre Berghmans, Leon Albert Lhoist and Vincent Berghmans - would join the business. Each generation brought with it its own dreams, its own vision, and new ambitions. Under the leadership of Jean Pierre Berghmans, they would significantly expand the group's horizons.
The pace of the post-war economic recovery had been relatively slow, and the industrial boom only really started around 1960. At the time, sufficient production capacity was needed to meet demand. This was a period of adaptation and renovation for the Lhoist plants, not just to respond to new demands from the steel market, but also to adapt to the specifications of their main customers who were requesting more reactive lime.
Leon Lhoist had a heightened sense of curiosity as well as the necessary humility, despite his own successes, seeking to learn more about what his peers were doing. Upon his return from the United States, he installed a lime hydration unit at the Jemelle plant, specifically for the construction industry.
After the end of the Second World War, Europe needed to be rebuilt and the Marshall Plan played a major part in this endeavor. During this period, European industrialists were struck by the significant technological advances of the Americans. Leon Lhoist, his son Raymond, and his team of directors sailed across the Atlantic to find out more about the quarrying and lime production techniques used in the United States.
Leon Lhoist was unstoppable. In 1937, he established the Dolomies de Marche les Dames company in Belgium. He began to mine one of the purest and largest dolomite deposits in Europe. The group ultimately gained control of the deposit following successive acquisitions spanning more than 50 years, under the leadership of Leon’s son-in-law, Jean Berghmans.
In 1924, he built a new lime plant in Jemelle in the south of Belgium and two years later he founded the Dugny Lime Quarry and Kiln Company in eastern France. Unbeknownst to him, this was just the first stage in the international expansion of the company, which would go on to become the Lhoist group.
His son-in-law Leon Lhoist inherited his passion for industrial development, applying his vision to the company’s industrial activities. After the end of the First World War, getting the European economy back on track was a priority and Leon Lhoist anticipated on the increased needs of the steel industry in Luxembourg and Lorraine.
Hippolyte Dumont was a tireless worker, both at the helm of his plants as well as in the community. A man of the people, he was keenly aware of the tough conditions that the workers had to operate in, extracting rocks using hammers and crowbars. He was the first to use a mechanical shovel on the continent, well before the First World War, significantly improving the working conditions and productivity of his operations as a result.
In 1900, Hippolyte Dumont acquired a quarry in Hermalle-sous-Huy in Belgium where he built nine lime kilns between 1901 and 1912. This is also where he established his company’s headquarters. Over time, the site would develop into one of the most important lime plants in Europe.
Although Hippolyte Dumont was still quite young, he already owned several brickworks in the Liege region. He was a capable man with a sense of organization and a spirit of conquest. It is this versatile, enterprising young man who founded the group that today bears the name of his son-in-law Leon Lhoist.
It all started when Hippolyte Dumont took over as head of the Ampsin quarry in 1889. Little did he know that his decision would give rise to a dynasty of industrialists who, from generation to generation, would nurture and develop their entrepreneurial spirit, perpetuating his legacy.