Traxio veteran Henri de Hemptinne is the new President

Traxio, the Belgian Federation of the automotive service sector and Mobility organization, has a new—old-hand—president: Henri de Hemptinne (66). He is former vice president of Traxio and president of GDA, the subdivision representing Belgian car dealers. Henri de Hemptine succeeds Didier Perwez, who held the chairmanship for the last six years.

With Henri de Hemptine, Traxio, representing some 10,000 employers and 100,000 employees of car dealerships, garages, and services, gets a president of noble Belgian birth, a Count from a well-known family and car dealership in Ghent: the CIAC Group.

Nobility put in perspective

However, the man himself puts his nobility in perspective. “Count, that‘s a title I wear with pride because my great–grandfather got it, but otherwise, it means nothing. I‘m just a man who has to work for his money, and so are my sons, who also inherited the title,” de Hemptine says in an interview in the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws in 2023.

He is the third generation to run the family business since his grandfather, Henri, started CIAC in 1923 with four other families. First, only defunct army trucks and the French automobile and commercial vehicle brand Chenard-Walcker were sold. Chenard-Walcker trucks were marketed via Peugeot sales channels until the 1970s.

Synonym for Peugeot in Ghent

That’s how CIAC landed with Peugeot in 2028, becoming the official dealership for East- and West-Flanders and Zeeuws-Flanders. CIAC was a synonym for ‘Peugeot’ in Ghent for decades until 2003.

Henri joined the family business run by his father, Felix, in 1984 and has headed CIAC since 1996, when his father died at a relatively young age. In 2003, CIAC decided to take a different tack, with Ford replacing Peugeot, adding Toyota in 2006 and Lexus in 2019.

Today, CIAG Group has dealerships in Ghent (Ledeberg), Deinze, and Alost, leasing with CIACfleet, a prominent second-hand car business, a body workshop (Bijloke), and a Ford camper rental service. Henri de Hemptine, currently Delegate Administrator of CIAC, is President of GDA Traxio, representing the Belgian car dealers, since July 2021.

Setting a clear course for Traxio

Now he takes – with pleasure, as he states in the official press release – the chairmanship of the whole Traxio organization: “With its many thousands of member companies, Traxio occupies a particularly important place in the entrepreneurial world and, as a mobility organization, is also an important discussion partner of the various governments in our country.”

“In these times of particularly rapid transition in all possible areas – just think of the electrification and consolidation waves – it is very important to set a clear course and secure the future of our member–entrepreneurs from the various sectors by helping them as much as possible to make the right decisions.”