History

The group was formed in 1997

by Pascal Hendrickx Born in 1965 in Lille, he earned a degree in technical sales engineering from the University of Valenciennes, and began his career in the SECA Group.

Sophia primary milestones include:

  • March 1997: establishment of SOPHIA Management
  • April 1997: establishment of SOPHIA Invest, the owner of SOPHIAs registered office, located at 98 Avenue Winston Churchill, in Uccle (Belgium)
  • July 1997: takeover of the business operations of AME (Audit Maintenance Energie), founded in 1984 by engineer Louis Vanlierde, which was to become SOPHIA Audit in 2008
  • January 1998: establishment of AME Switzerland which became SOPHIA Switzerland in 2008 in partnership with the Swiss consulting firm, Rigot & Rieben Engineering
  • October 1999: establishment of AME France which became SOPHIA France in 2008
  • September 2001: takeover of the functions of project management and consulting on special technologies and safety coordination of the company BGROUP. This operation was renamed ENGYTIME and in 2006 it became SOPHIA Engineering.
  • January 2002: establishment of SOPHIA Finance for the financing of the groups operations (company held 100% by Pascal Hendrickx)
  • January 2003: establishment of AME Luxembourg which became SOPHIA Luxembourg in 2008.
  • January 2008: gathering of the different group subsidiaries under the SOPHIA quality label in view to sharing a common identity.
  • December 2010: Integration of Sicabel. Since December 2010 Sicabel joined SOPHIA Group. This company led by Bernard Cartier offers a full of services for Corporate Real estate Consulting. Its professionals are dedicated to Programming, Project Management, Space planning, Moving and Fitting.
  • January 2011: Integration of Green Value a subsidiary of GVA Finance.
  • January 2011: Socotec International has acquired 75% stake in Sophia Audit and took back the entire rights of the KMIS software.
  • May 2012: Socotec has acquired 25% stake Sophia Audit
  • December 2012: Sophia reorganizes the group around its new holding company Sophia Group - Sophia Finance adapts its activities as the holding company for the Belgian based activities.
  • September 2015: Sophia reorganised all its belgian activities in the Sophia Belgium company and deleted all the 4 subsidiaries (Management, Engineering, Consulting and Environment)
  • January 2021: Establishement of GESTEO, in association with ThéGo. For Technical Engineering & audit activities.
  • March 2022: Establishement of Sophia Helpdek for developing activities of Building Help Desk and Technical Dispatching.