Growing with the wind

Luc Desender, CEO of Electrawinds, argues that entrepreneurs need to choose their market carefully

In just ten years Electrawinds has grown into the Belgian market leader in green energy. The organisation started in Flanders with wind turbines and six employees. Today they are also involved in biomass and in Ostend alone the organisation counts a hundred and seventy employees.

‘West Flanders has a good climate for running a business.’ Luc Desender, CEO of Electrawinds makes no secret of where he comes from. Entrepreneurship in Belgium generally, however, is something he’d rather not discuss. ‘I can only speak about my own shop, which is doing better all the time.’

Pioneer

The shop that Desender refers to is not his first brain child. Until 1998 he ran a VW garage in Bruges, where he employed thirty-seven people. Even then he was interested in working in an environmentally friendly way. Desender delved into the problem of how he could produce his own energy. This question captivated him and he threw himself into a totally new adventure. And not only for him, since the broader Belgian market was not yet familiar with green energy. The electricity market was a monopolistic bastion and no proper regulation existed. The government still had to create a legal framework and it had no relevant expertise of its own, so Desender and the government struggled simultaneously through all the facets of a start-up phase.

Starting slowly

Today everyone supports green energy, but when Electrawinds was set up society was not really ready for it. Electrawinds used that time to learn gradually and to make the right choices. In the initial period internationalisation was considered. Luc Desender: ‘Now everyone finds our strategy very logical, for example in which countries we set up business or the fact that we start up with wind turbines and only later switch to biomass and solar, but at the time that was visionary.’ Electrawinds started with wind turbines in Flanders, after which it also became active in the Walloon region. Later its borders were pushed out ever more widely, in Europe, and later in Africa as well. Today Electrawinds operates in Italy and France, next year in Romania, South Africa and Namibia. Each time the company starts by putting up and running wind turbines, and later expanding its activity to biomass and solar. ‘The know-how which Electrawinds has accumulated is being projected on to other countries, adapted to the local legislation, of course. But the basic knowledge remains in Belgium,’ says Desender.

Expansion

Growing from four to a hundred and seventy employees in ten years’ time; a doubling of the turnover from 50 to 100 million Euros in a year’s time —it doesn’t just happen by itself. There has to be a clear strategy behind it and the backbone of the company must be strong but flexible enough to weather such growth. Luc Desender: ‘You can only grow if there is enough demand for your product. You must be able to offer added value. We are in the green sector which of course offers quite a few possibilities. That choice and decision, which lie at the heart of your business and your success, will completely determine your growth rate. If you start a transport business today, you are doomed to stay small or go under.’

Gaps in the system

It’s not all rosy at Electrawinds in Ostend. Luc Desender: ‘A significant threat to our success and a barrier to growth are the current activities of the Council of State (Raad van State). Opposition by a private individual or a company can easily freeze the application for a licence for five to six years. During this period you can’t build or start up. If the court’s judgement goes against the opposing party you still don’t get compensation, even though you’ve lost five years. Also, it’s also not always easy to find growth capital. Much depends on your type of business and we are luckily in the right sector.’ Electrawinds is still in the hands of its founders but has fixed financial partners in the form of the Gemeentelijke Holding and Dexia Gimv Infra+ and PMV Participatie Maatschappij Vlaanderen.

Fix the system

The green sector faces many challenges, at least according to Luc Desender. ‘This sector is evolving so rapidly that it’s really important to make the right choices. Today’s decisions will shape the future. Today nobody knows if we will still have fuel oil for another five, ten or fifty years. But we do know that the reserves are finite, so choices will have to be made.

Golden Advice

- Choose your timing, you must be the first.
- Choose your sector, one with a future.
- Be unique, better than the rest.
- Think with vision.
- Surround yourself with quality people and give them the necessary independence.