A-kwadraat is a social enterprise that offers work to more than 500 people with a distance to the labour market. We emphasize their capabilities and capacities. That emphasis on the positive is translated into solution-oriented thinking and acting in everything we do. Quality, safety and speed are an essential part of that. And you can count on us: a promise is a promise.
Our mission, in other words our purpose, reads as follows:
A-kwadraat increases the employment rate of people distanced from the labour market in the region and focuses on employee satisfaction.
We achieve this by:
Offering adapted work, encouraging personal development, creating prospects for internal or external progression
Reaching out to new target groups, in cooperation with facilitators and authorities
Exchanging knowledge and experiences with other organisations
Engaging in co-creation with stakeholders
A-kwadraat's vision, its answer to the question ‘What do we want to be’, reads:
A-kwadraat aspires to be an inclusive organisation that focuses on sustainable and high-quality entrepreneurship, and is creative and agile in its partnerships.
In an inclusive society, everyone should be able to participate equally and fully. We are advocates for this vision, and our work supports it by lowering the threshold to paid work and reducing the gap between social and mainstream economies.
Sustainable entrepreneurship means weaving the social, economic, societal and environmental aspects of entrepreneurship into a seamless whole. We play our part in working towards the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Quality is a cornerstone of our operations: it’s our constant concern, and we expect all employees to help safeguard the quality of our processes.
For A-kwadraat, creativity means keeping an open mind when we tackle questions or challenges. We look for out-of-the-box solutions and we like inventive tailor-made approaches. Our agility allows us to adapt to changing circumstances and makes us a flexible partner.
We went through a process with our employees around the question: ‘What do we believe in’. The result is a layered model that results from the mission and vision of our organization and does justice to the complexity of an organization culture.
Our belief is:
Everyone included
We want everyone to be able to participate and offer a suitable enviroment for all employees, where we work together constructively. Everyone has their own value. By feeling included and understood, people can thrive with A-kwadraat. This way we create added value and we go for inclusion. Within our company, with customers and in society.
We summarize the behavior that follows from this belief as follows:
I dare do.
I help you.
We appreciate each other.
We solve it.
Since our foundation we intertwine the social, economic and ecologic aspects of entrepreneurship to an elegant whole. Corporate Social Responsability (CSR) is an integral part of how we operate. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations provide the framework within which we aim to work. A-kwadraat prioritises four of these goals. They are central to what we do, and they are:
SDG 1: No poverty
SDG 4: Quality education
SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
In 2024 we were awarded the Voka Charter for Sustainable Entrepreneurship for the fifteenth time, were nominated for the Sustainable Entrepreneurship Award and were proud to receive the prestigious SDG Champion certificate. This recognition reflects the expansion of our mission, in which we sharpen our focus on activation.
How does this differ from the SDG Pioneer certificate, which we received from UNITAR (the United Nations Institute for Training and Research) in October 2020? An SDG Pioneer focuses intensively on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Companies that go on to emphasise their core activities and implement a pilot project centred on transition, become an SDG Champion.
In early 2024 we underwent a new EFQM assessment, one of the most challenging, integral quality-management models. The result was impressive: we added a fifth star to our EFQM quality label. In 2021 A-kwadraat had been evaluated thoroughly for the first time and achieved an excellent four-star report.
A-kwadraat was formed in 2019 after the merger of social profit companies Amival and Alito, hence the name A-kwadraat or A-squared.
From a house in the beguinage of Turnhout, Amival grew into a thriving sheltered workshop. Since 1964, we have been combining social, economic, societal and ecological aspects of entrepreneurship into an elegant whole. Amival evolved into a modern social enterprise that carries out activities for a broad client portfolio: from one-man businesses to multinationals in different sectors.
Alito was launched in 1986, under the impulse of VKW Kempen and VIBO de Ring. The objective: creating sustainable employment for former pupils of special needs education schools. For 25 years, woodworking was the main focus. Since the start of this century, green maintenance has become a secondary field. Alito has focused on international customers for its wood products and on a strong local presence in the provinces of Antwerp and Limburg for green maintenance.
