History
In 1851, Joseph De Jaegher founded a hardware store in the Burg in Bruges; in 1855, this expanded with a steel workshop on the Raamstraat, named Ateliers J. Jaegher; in 1891, this merged with another steel making company in the nearby Gieterijstraat, the Usines Ferdinand Feldhaus, to form the Ateliers de Construction Forges et Aceries de Bruges. By 1900, the company was a major Belgian metal engineering company. In 1905, the company moved its plant and offices to a larger site with good railway connections close to the Ghent Ostend canal at Sint-Michiels in Bruges. Until 1913, the company operated as the Société Anonym La Brugeoise, abbreviated as "La Brugeoise".
In 1913, the company La Brugeoise et Nicaise et Delcuve was formed by the merger of the Bruges-based companies La Brugeoise and Nicaise et Delcuve during a re-organisation of the interests of the holding company Trust Métallurgique Belge-Français, and capitalised at 10 million francs; the new company included a modern steel works, forge and mills at Sint-Michiels.
During World War I, the facilities were occupied by German forces, and at the end of the war had been substantially damaged, however post war construction also required the organisation products. In 1919, control of the company was taken by the Société Générale de Belgique.
In 1956, this merged with Les Ateliers Métallurgiques de Nivelles to form La Brugeoise et Nivelles. In 1977, the company merged with Constructions Ferroviaries du Centre (CFC) (in Familleureux, Hainaut, Belgium) to form BN Constructions Ferroviaries et Métalliques (BN).
In 1986, Bombardier took at 45% share in BN, which was increased to 90.6% in 1988. The plants at Bruges and Manage became the BN division of Bombardier Eurorail in 1991.
The factory in Nivelles closed and was demolished in 1989/90.
In 2000, Bombardier announced it was to close the subsidiary plant BN Manage based in Manage, Belgium; the action attracted criticism from both trade unions and the Belgian government; perception was that Bombardier had used the 'jobs card' to win a Belgian double deck train contract worth 8.5 billion Belgian francs. The closure announcement came as a complete volte-face from Bombardier's previous statements which included optimistic statements about the Manage plant's future. Train-making ended at the site which was re-purposed by Duferco for steel plate processing.
As of 2011, the factory in Bruges was part of Bombardier Transportation as Bombardier Transportation Belgium S.A..
Read more about this topic: La Brugeoise Et Nivelles
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