Vandersanden opens its first Pirrouet® factory

With an investment of €32.5 million, the new factory started up in Lanklaar has an annual production capacity of 20 million facing bricks.

The Belgian multinational Vandersanden, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of facing bricks, façade solutions and pavers, has officially opened its first Pirrouet® factory in Lanklaar, a town in the municipality of Dilsen-Stokkem in the province of Limburg, Belgium.

The start-up of the production plant required an investment of €32.5 million, including €2.2 million obtained from a European grant under the Horizon Europe programme, which supports the installation of industrial equipment for CO₂ capture and reuse.

Pirrouet® is one of the latest and most innovative products developed by the company. It is a CO₂-negative facing brick that absorbs carbon dioxide during the curing process, contributing to more durable and sustainable construction.

The new factory spans an area of 8,000 m², employs 26 people and has an annual production capacity of up to 20 million Pirrouet® facing bricks, with the possibility to double its production volume with further expansion and investment. Looking to the future, Vandersanden aims to build multiple Pirrouet® factories, an expansion that will bring broader environmental benefits and further support the company’s sustainability goals.

One year after the launch of this innovative product, Pirrouet® has already been selected for several building projects, including the Green Nobelhorst in Almere in the Netherlands, where 60 eco-friendly housing units are being constructed using 320,000 Pirrouet® bricks. Each square metre of façade permanently stores 8.5 kg of CO₂, with 7 kg absorbed during production and 1.5 kg captured over the building’s lifespan, for a total of 42,500 kg of CO₂.

Similarly, for the renovation of the Living Tomorrow Innovation Campus in Brussels, architects chose the diamond-shaped Pirrouet® Prisma, which offers exceptional design flexibility and aesthetic versatility. The campus façades incorporated 500 square metres of Pirrouet® Prisma facing bricks, capable of absorbing 5.5 tonnes of CO₂.