Our group continues its transformation: a strategic shift initiated almost ten years ago, which is now bearing fruit.
In an article published by L’Echo on April 12, 2025, journalist Jean-François Sacré recounts the remarkable journey of our Liège-based company, whose turnover has doubled in five years to reach nearly 150 million euros.
Successful Diversification
Long focused on gambling, our group has strategically refocused on entertainment in the broader sense. The share of gaming in our turnover has thus decreased from 80% to 50% in a decade, benefiting new sectors: sport, tourism, catering, beverages, real estate, and more.
At first glance disparate, our scope of activities can nevertheless be read coherently: gambling, entertainment centers, games for cafes, hotels and restaurants, cinemas, garden centers, sport, beverages (Val-Dieu beers, wines, and coffee), real estate, and a real estate development division. In addition, there are support activities and two “club deals”: So Impact, dedicated to sustainable projects, and So Move, active in mobility (notably via Upway, recycled electric bicycles).
Under the impetus of our CEO, Jean-Marc Corteil, we have become a major player in regional development. This growth is based on an agile strategy: targeted acquisitions, strong partnerships, and structuring investments. But beyond the figures, it is the societal dimension of these choices that embodies our DNA.
“We are committed to family and entrepreneurial values for the good of our region, which is too often criticized. This is what drives us above all.”
— Jean-Marc Corteil, in L’Echo
This commitment is shared by Vincent Brossel, Marketing Director: “Without our group, the Val-Dieu abbey brewery, for example, would not have experienced such development. We injected 10 million into it ten years ago and recently added another 1.2 million.”
Sport: A Lever for Sustainable Development
Among the major axes of our strategy, sport now occupies a central place. A carrier of strong values, a catalyst for social ties, and a tool for regional influence, it perfectly embodies the societal mission we wish to pursue.
Supporting Basketball as a Lever for Cohesion
Two years ago, we became shareholders of the Spirou de Charleroi basketball club, an emblematic name in Belgian sport. A strategic investment? Not really.
“It’s more of a societal investment; we don’t make money in basketball,”
— Maxime Corteil, who leads this project internally.
For him, as for Jean-Marc Corteil, the challenge lies elsewhere: to keep a club alive, strengthen the local social fabric, and build bridges with economic and institutional actors in the region.
This partnership is also part of a history of human proximity. The connection with Axel Hervelle, a figure in Belgian basketball who played for Pepinster – where Victor Bosquin, our group’s historical founder, was president – facilitated the encounter. Today, as director of Spirou, Axel Hervelle embodies this new dynamic driven by local commitment.
The Spiroudôme, a Long-Term Vision
Our project is not limited to sporting performance. The ambition is to transform the Spiroudôme into a truly multifunctional living space. Concerts, shows, professional meetings: more than 100 events already take place there each year. The objective is to increase annual revenues from 4.5 to 6 million euros, with the essential support of the city of Charleroi, owner of the premises, and the local economic fabric.
For us, the development of sport is inseparable from that of the territories.
Cycling, an Image Vector for Wallonia
Another strong project: our support for the Intermarché-Wanty cycling team, the only Walloon team on the World Tour circuit. Here again, the objective is above all societal: to promote Wallonia on the international stage, through a popular, demanding, and universal discipline.
Rider Biniam Girmay, winner of the green jersey in the last Tour de France, embodies this ambition. Jean-Marc Corteil, recently appointed president of the team’s strategic committee, sees this project as an opportunity to invest in a sport of values: effort, perseverance, humility.
In parallel, we are continuing our investments: leisure centers in Lontzen and Mons (scheduled to open in May and June), a hotel and residential complex in Liège, as well as a nine-screen multiplex cinema in Seraing, in partnership with the Gehlen group.
Want to know more?
Find all our projects and the full article published in L’Echo on April 12, 2025 by clicking here.
