| The family business ‘firma Gebroeders Gijzels’ has been established in 1921, by Ernest Gijzels. With a delivery bicycle, he brought his first slaughtered to a butcher’s in Knokke. This became such a success, that, nowadays, we still deliver lambs to this family... but with a lorry of course. |
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| After the war, his son Werner became a member of the team and they expanded. Especially on the Belgian coast, the sales increased and the company grew steadily. As a young boy, grandson Maurice was already interested in the business. At that time, they slaughtered about 300 pieces a week in the old slaughterhouse, situated in Sluis, Markt. Because of the stricter EEC requirements, it became more and more difficult to maintain the company in the centre of the town. So they bought an old factory building in St. Anna Street and reconstructed it to an ultramodern abattoir in accordance with the regulations. In 1987, they removed from the centre of Sluis to St. Anna Street. From then on, Maurice and Patrick Gijzels managed the company. |
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| In 2008, a separate room was built especially for the slaughter of cattle for delivery in the EC with a capacity of about 50 pieces per day. This new building also now has the space and facilities for the slaughter of cattle for domestic sales. |
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| During the nineties we got more offer for the ritual slaughter the so-called Islamic Feast of Sacrifice. In the early years of 2000 each weekl about 2500 lambs were slaughtered; widely peak periods. This was mainly due to the FMD crisis, as import of slaughtered lambs from Scotland was prohibited then and everything had to be slaughtered therefore by ourselves. |
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