Their story

1950-1969: The Congo It all started in the early 1950s when Joseph Looze (1st J of our appellation J.J. Looze) decided to leave Belgium with his wife and children to settle in the Congo, a former Belgian colony. He bought a 120-hectare coffee plantation there in North Kivu and also started growing vegetables and livestock. After the events of 1960, Joseph invested in a coffee processing structure and exported the products of many plantations in Kivu.

In 1964, his son Jacques (2nd J. from J.J. Looze) decided to support his father in the field. 1969: Return to Belgium Initially, the return to Belgium was not definitive; however, doing it all over again in Africa seems quite risky. It was then that the opportunity to take over a coffee roastery in Brussels presented itself and what could be more natural than to continue in a field already so well known. Father and son learn how to roast, wives and sister take care of the two retail stores, one located on chaussée de Waterloo in Ixelles, the other on Boulevard Léopold II in Molenbeek where the roasting is located.

In 1974, the prices of green coffees exploded on the world market, most Belgian roasters disappeared. Despite the difficulties, the J.J. Looze cafés are going through the crisis while modifying their activities a little. In particular, they took over a company selling raw materials for bakeries. In 1986, Joseph Looze retired and his son, Jacques, refocused activities on the distribution of coffee in high-end HORECA. The statutes of the company are modified and the third J, that of Jacqueline (Jacques' sister), which appeared in the original brand, is abandoned by the agent in charge!

In 1989, the activity diversified again with the distribution and marketing in Belgium of "Old-fashioned jams", packaged in 28g verrines, in the luxury hotel sector. Then, in 1994, the roasting moved to Feluy in an old farm. Located in a pleasant environment, this new facility, much larger than the previous one, will allow centralized storage of goods, rationalization of production and order preparation as well as ease of loading and parking. At that time, Sylvie, Jacques' daughter, joined the family business.