Inofer Productions

‘Inofer Productions’ in Mechelen was a press shop for non-ferrous metals. Before it was a rubber factory and a malt house. The company went bankrupt at the end of 2013.

Originally the building belonged to ‘Malterie Vandermolen’ a malt house that was established in 1885. The old malt towers are still part of the current abandoned factory. The malt house was designed by Antwerp architect Georges Matthyssens.

Vandermolen sold the buildings to rubber factory ‘Le Caoutchouc Récupéré’. Eventually, in 1963 the rubber manufacturer sold the buildings to Inofer.

Inofer was specialized in forging knives and making gas taps. The company was also active in neighboring countries, but it got into financial problems in 2010. The company employed 119 workers, and all of them were fired by the curator in the first instance. Although a restart was made, with 90 employees. As a result, only 29 people lost their job. However, the restart could not prevent a bankruptcy in 2013.

In March 2015, four teenagers went on a joyride in two forklift trucks inside the abandoned factory. When the roof collapsed after a crash, an 11 and an 18-year-old kid died. I visited ‘Inofer Productions’, close to Mechelen station, in 2019. Plans to reconvert the site were eventually made in 2020. In detail, the large-scale reconversion project is intended to contribute to the renewal of the Mechelen station area. Click here for more abandoned buildings in Mechelen.