Manufacturing plants
The Industry range accounts for the greater part of the Apparel division's turnover. It includes protective clothing against rain, wind and cold, but also highly technical protective clothing against electric arcs, welding flames, extreme cold and chemicals.
With substained commercial pressure on low-end markets, SIOEN is focussing strategically on products and applications with a high degree of technical complexity such as floatation suits, fire fighting suits, protective clothing for the petrochemicals and forestry sectors, etc. This technical complexity means that competition is more limited, whilst demand is rising as European standards and regulations become increasingly stringent.
Protective clothing is essentially a series of niche markets, generally subject to stringent and complex performance specifications. Forty years' experience of safety standards across Europe and sophisticated test equipment place the Apparel Division in a strong competitive position in these different markets
Design and Production
With an eye for detail and expert knowledge of production techniques and raw materials, our creative designers and textile engineers develop functional and comfortable protective clothing which meets all regulations and technical requirements.
Each design is produced carefully to the strictest quality standards in one of our modern production centres in Tunisia, Indonesia and elsewhere. We are continually investing in the latest technologies to enable us to meet the highest quality standards. SIOEN has the most recent ISO 9001 version 2000 certification and the Apparel division works according to the AQUAP standards for military apparel (NATO Military certificate of Conformity).
Innovation
Innovation starts from a constant desire to be out front, exploring new territory, striking out in new directions. It is spurred on by competition: if we don't innovate, others will. It requires us to be entrepreneurial and take calculated risks. Protection through Innovation is SIOEN's corporate slogan. Innovation keeps us ahead of the market with new products, processes and applications based on our core expertise.
Sales and distribution
The sale of protective clothing is centralized at the headquarters in Ardooie, from where our main sales team operates. SIOEN Apparel also has a number of local sales units in France, Indonesia, Germany, Ireland and the UK serving local markets.
Finished products are shipped from the various production centres to a fully automated dispatch and distribution centre in Mouscron, and from there to customers.