Prototype. Chapter text drafted from the research notes and not yet checked at the archives. Images awaiting permission are marked.

Beaulieu International Group

Company · not yet checked at the source

Made by: Roger De Clerck
Date: founded 1959
Place: Waregem, West Flanders
Held by: Beaulieu International Group
Themes: Machine tufting & Dalton, Global diffusion of tufting

View at the source Cited in chapter 7, notes 33, 34 Cited in chapter 11, notes 22, 25

Cite this source

Roger De Clerck. “Beaulieu International Group,” founded 1959. Beaulieu International Group. beaulieu.com/en/who-we-are/history.

Research notes

Roger De Clerck began in 1959 with an upholstery-fabric workshop on the family farm (Ter Lembeek, near Kortrijk/Wielsbeke). The group expanded and integrated vertically; in 1991 it was split among De Clerck and his six children, and in 2005 five branches merged as Beaulieu International Group. Beaulieu of America was founded in 1978 by son-in-law Carl Bouckaert and daughter Mieke De Clerck, became a large Dalton tufted-carpet maker, went bankrupt in 2017, and its assets went to Engineered Floors. Why it matters: a Belgian family group that planted a major tufter in Dalton—tufting flowing back from Europe to the US. Dates: 1959 consistent; Wikipedia calls it a fabric business and De Clerck's biography a carpet company; FCNews obituary misdates Beaulieu of America to 1959 (it was 1978). Other pages with images: https://beaulieu.bintg.com/history-growth Independent sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaulieu_International_Group · https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/beaulieu-of-america/ · https://www.fcnews.net/2015/11/obituary-beaulieu-founder-de-clerck/ Research note (Oct 2026): facts taken from search-result summaries; the pages themselves weren't opened. Check the cited pages before quoting.