The fourth generation of a family business

Olivier Tanghe is the fifth member of the Tanghe family to take on the running of Banaline. The origins of Banaline date back to 1897. In that year, Cyriel Tanghe – the great-grandfather of Olivier – started the ‘Tanghe & Son’ shoe factory in Izegem, with the brand name ‘La Chimère’. The company took a further important step forward in 1914 with the introduction of the mechanised manufacture of shoes. Tanghe & Son profited from the rapid expansion of the shoe industry in Izegem and was soon exporting its products, even to countries as far afield as the United States.

In recognition of his achievements, the Cyriel Tanghe Square in Izegem was named after the company’s founder. His son, Raphaël Tanghe, continued to expand the business. He was managing director of the ‘Establishment C.Tanghe & Son’, a director of the National Federation of Shoe Manufacturers and chairman of the Izegem and District Union of Shoe Manufacturers. Roland Tanghe – the son of Raphaël – inevitably found his way into the family firm and in 1960 was able to realise his ambition: the opening of a second factory, specifically for children’s shoes. For the brand name, he chose the word ‘Bana’, which is Congolese for ‘child’.

The company continued to flourish, but in 1971 there was a major fire in the women’s shoe factory at the ‘Tanghe Nederweg’ site, which was effectively the headquarters of the entire group. This had catastrophic consequences for both sales and production, so that Roland Tanghe was forced to make the decision to shut down manufacture in Izegem and transfer it to Italy. After the death of Roland in 1986 his son Olivier took over the company and decided to focus on quality, concentrating almost exclusively on the retail trade, with three lines of children’s shoes, which are fully in the company’s control from A to Z.