Our story
For more than a century, the Blanchisserie de la Petite Suisse has kept a craft alive in the heart of Brussels. It started in a cellar with no light, with an iron washtub and a great deal of courage as its only tools. Since then it has passed from one generation to the next without losing its soul.
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Staff
1905
Catherine Folie was 23 and working as a laundress in Etterbeek when she decided to set up on her own. With just 20 francs borrowed from her mother, she rented a small kitchen and a cellar. Armed with an iron washtub, a cast-iron iron and unshakeable courage, she lived and worked in those two modest rooms without any light.
1909
Space soon ran short and a move became unavoidable: to the Chaussée de Waterloo, in the Bascule neighbourhood. With the help of her first two workers, Catherine grew the business with real determination. The quality of her work quickly won over Brussels' middle classes, who became the heart of her clientele.
1914
Madame Folie then had the workshop built where we still work today. Back then, deliveries went out by horse and cart, and the coal for the boiler came straight from Etterbeek station.
1940
During the Second World War, the laundry employed up to 40 people. Driven by a deep sense of solidarity, Madame Folie opened her doors to those with the least, giving them a chance to work and earn a modest living despite the hardships of the time.
1991
With no one in the family to take over, the business passed to another local laundry family, the Mahauts. Short of space in their workshop in Watermael, they gained in the Petite Suisse a large workshop and a clientele that fitted perfectly with their own.
2001
The two workshops where we still work today have been refitted, rebuilt and adapted countless times over the years. The second generation of the Mahaut family, four people sharing the same passion, took the reins, deeply attached to the values the business was founded on.
2024
Now it is the turn of the fourth generation of the family, the third to bear the Mahaut name, together with the Geurts family, to carry the story forward. The business has gone digital: ordering, collection and tracking all run through the WOSH app, with nothing given up on the craft of the workshop. Our work now extends to hotels, restaurants, nurseries and care homes, and our round covers 26 communes. Thirty-five staff serve more than 250 business clients every month.