Belgian waffles, a rich history

Founding father Jules Thijs penned the recipe for our success story. At an early age, he was bitten by the bakery bug. The rest is history.

Young Jules loved to bake apple bread under the watchful eye of his father. After graduation Jules became a mechanic at the local cookie factory “De Beuckelaer”. 

In 1961, Jules married Simonne, the daughter of a master baker, and started working as an apprentice in his father-in-law’s atelier. Combining his technical know-how with his passion for pastry, Jules found true passion.

In the 70s, Jules Thijs built a small waffle oven. In his spare time, he baked waffles for schools, shops and market stalls. His fine waffles were an instant and resounding success. Sharing his delicious craft with locals, was the one thing Jules liked most.

Did you know Jules Thijs manually processed over 2.000 kg of pastry each week?

The success of his traditional waffles pushed Jules to come up with a creative solution to deal with large requests. In 1974, he launched the first factory of Biscuterie Thijs in his backyard. In this 400m² bakery, his semi-automatic waffle oven would grow to work many hours overtime.

Did you know Jules Thijs was the first person ever to invent a semi-automatic waffle oven?

After less than 10 years, Biscuterie Thijs moved to an industrial estate. This new location would become a bakery over twice the size of Jules' backyard factory. The 1.850m2 building housed 2 modern production lines. Larger batches of waffles were now easily handled.  

Jules Thijs industrialized the Belgian waffle craft, but he never lost sight of tradition. His winning recipe was left untouched, with its sacred ingredients standing the test of time till today.

In the 90s, Biscuterie Thijs kept on expanding and modernizing its waffle bakery. On an area of 8000m2, artisans and master bakers ensured that every single waffle met Jules’ high quality standards.

At the same time, Jules welcomed his children to help him run the day-to-day business. Together they transformed Biscuterie Thijs to the global actor it is today, without losing track of family values and fair leadership. 

Throughout the 2000s, the Thijs family implemented an ambitious investment program to level up capacity and efficiency. A new warehouse for packaging materials, a new commodities warehouse and a new production hall brought the total company area to approximately 16.000m2. High-performing packaging lines provided an exceptional variety of possibilities.

Did you know Our family recipes haven’t changed in over 40 years?

At Belgian Waffles Thijs, we believe cooperative business management is the future of the food industry. Our strength lies in the people; our employees. Every perfect waffle you bite into is a product of their hard work and passion.

Did you know Over 40 nationalities keep our bakeries running every day?