D'Ieteren

D'Ieteren Group SA (Euronext: DIE) is a company, based in Belgium that is engaged in automobile distribution and vehicle glass repair and replacement (VGRR) and other industrial activities related to spare parts .

Activities

The group activities consists of five different branches.

D'Ieteren Automotive imports and distributes Volkswagen, Audi, Škoda, Seat, Cupra, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Maserati vehicles across Belgium.
Belron (94.85% owned) performs vehicle glass repair and replacement. 2,400 branches and 8,600 mobile vans, trading under 15 different brands including Carglass, Autoglass and Safelite, serve customers in 35 countries.
Moleskine is an Italian manufacturer, papermaker, and product designer founded in 1997 by Francesco Franceschi, based in Milan, Italy. It produces and designs luxury notebooks, as well as planners, sketchbooks, leather backpacks, holdalls, journals, wallets, various accessories, and stationery.
Parts Holding Europe (PHE) is a leader in the independent distribution of spare parts for light and heavy vehicles in Western Europe, especially in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Spain.
TVH (40% owned) is a parts manufacturer and retailer specialised for industrial and agricultural sectors.

History

The D'Ieteren venture started in the 19th century, when it was founded by master coachbuilder Joseph-Jean D'Ieteren. The company started to manufacture car bodies at the beginning of the 20th century, with production being exported. Later, it moved into the assembly and importing of cars and trucks.

In 1948 a deal was struck by Peter D'Ieteren whereby the company would assemble Volkswagens under license. Work began on a factory on the south side of Brussels in October of that year, and by 1949 cars were emerging from it. There was also an agreement to assemble Studebakers, but most of the volume over the next couple of decades came from the Volkswagen business. The factory was sold to Volkswagen in 1970 and is today known formally as "Audi Brussels".

D'Ieteren's car rental business commenced in 1956.

The company imports and distributes other makes of the Volkswagen group: Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, SEAT,Cupra, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini, as well as Yamaha products (till 2020).

D'Ieteren acquired Belron in 1999. Belron performs vehicle glass repair and replacement. The company operates in Europe and Brazil under the brand names Carglass and Autoglass (Ireland, United Kingdom, Poland), in North America (Canada, United States) as Safelite and Speedy Glass, in Australia under the brand name O'Brien and in New Zealand under the brand name Smith & Smith.

They acquired Moleskine in 2016.