They’re older than Belgium, based in Ghent, and if you fancy a bit of culture there’s a fair chance you’ve seen their handiwork. Did you know that the Belgian business Meyvaert is one of the world’s leaders in display cases?
From Abu Dhabi to the Anne Frank house, from the Smithsonian to the Tower of London: Meyvaert delivers on quality and innovation, and anyone who needs a display case knows whose door to knock on.
The company was founded in Ghent in 1826 and started out specialising in a whole different kind of glass: they were initially a mirror factory. Whoever purchased those mirrors must have liked what they saw, given their innovation and expansion of their “glass solutions portfolio”, Meyvaert spread like wildfire and became a key player in their industry. As they’ve evolved on their journey, they’ve taken the display case business by storm since the 1980s.
The company boasts a 25-year life expectancy for its products, which should come as no surprise with nearly 200 years of experience. They highlight “the use of modern methods and materials” to explain this durability.
For a large part, those materials come from home, from the provinces of East Flanders (where Ghent is) and West Flanders just to the west of it (could you guess?). You could say this company is Belgian to the bone. They’ve got their reasons for keeping those elements of their process close to home: their clients are across the globe, and working with local suppliers means they can more easily and quickly replace any missing or malfunctioning parts before shipping the final product, which they test build before sending it halfway across the world.
Of course, they have their finest calling card right at their doorstep. One of the notable institutions counting on Meyvaert’s knowhow is the Saint Bavo cathedral, where the brothers Van Eyck’s altarpiece, the Mystic Lamb, can be admired by the outside world while being safely protected by…a Meyvaert display case!
Source: Focus on Belgium
