Nicolas de Schutter receives ‘SME Career Award 2022’: “This is a reward for all masters of Multi Masters Group”

Nicolas de Schutter received the SME Career Award 2022 (‘KMO Carrièreprijs 2022’) during a gala in San Marco Village in Schelle. The organisers praised the chairman of Multi Masters Group “for his impressive merit for business in general and the continuation and dynamic growth of the family business Multi Masters Group.”

SME Career Award

The SME Career Award has been awarded since 2011. With this award, the organisers – the A12 Business Club and KMO-promoties – pay tribute to “the locomotives of our economy”.

Nicolas de Schutter - chairman of Multi Masters Group - receives the SME Career Award 2022.

Nicolas de Schutter

Nicolas de Schutter was brought up on his passion for the facilities sector. In 1988, his father Paul de Schutter founded the cleaning company Cleaning Masters. Nicolas soon started working in the family business and took over from his father in 2004.

Under his leadership the cleaning company evolved into the facilities service provider Multi Masters Group. This service provider looks after customers in all sectors thanks to ten specialised divisions, including Cleaning Masters.

“To see your name on the same list as Count Paul Buysse, Fernand Huts, Jan Adriaenssens and Eddy Bruyninckx, that is quite an honour.”

In 2022, the company with its headquarters in Merksem and regional branches in Ghent, Roeselare, Zonhoven, Flémalle, Jumet and Strombeek-Bever has 4,000 employees. As the largest foreign subsidiary of the French group Samsic, Last year, Multi Masters Group took its first steps towards the Netherlands.

Nicolas de Schutter at SME Career Award ceremony: “A great honour”

Nicolas de Schutter expressed his sincere happiness with the SME Career Award 2022. “When you see who has already won this prize, it means something. To see your name in the same list as, among others, Count Paul Buysse, Fernand Huts (Katoen Natie), Jan Adriaenssens (AMB Holding) and Eddy Bruyninckx (Port of Antwerp), is quite an honour.”

Nicolas de Schutter of Multi Masters Group receives the SME Career Award 2022

“Those people have achieved very nice results. If we look at Multi Masters Group, we can also be proud of the fact that our company has tripled or even quadrupled in size since 2004. I am very proud that I can guide that process as chairman. Because one thing needs to be clear: this is an award for all of us, for all the masters of Multi Masters Group.”

“Within our company we have chosen to invest in people. Thanks to that choice, we have managed to build a very strong team that carries out the values and standards of our company every day.”

Future plans

A career award is usually given as a kind of reward for your entire career. “It is nice to receive this Career Award at the mere age of 54, but I am far from thinking of retirement,” says Nicolas de Schutter. “We have big plans for the future with Multi Masters Group. To further expand our range of services under our own management, for example. And to take further steps in the area of digitisation.”

New buildings

The geographical spread and local anchoring play an important role in the personal approach of Multi Masters Group. That’s why the company invests in its regional branches.

“We have three construction projects in the pipeline. The first one is already in full swing. Our West Flanders team will move into a brand new building in Roeselare before the end of the year. In 2023 we will move into new premises with office and warehouse space in Flémalle. One year later, our head office will cross the Dok in Merksem. Then we will move from the Westkaai to the Oostkaai. This will allow us to further optimise the cooperation between our departments, which our customers certainly appreciate. You see, this Career Award is a very nice reward, but we are still thinking about the future.”

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