On 1 and 2 October 2026, we welcomed our newest colleagues to Belgium for the third edition of the WDP Academy. Two days to understand our business, our culture and, above all, the people who make it work.

The WDP Academy is WDP’s two-day international onboarding programme, in which new colleagues from every market get to know the company’s strategy, culture and logistics real estate portfolio, from headquarters to the warehouse floor.

WDP now operates across several European markets, and every new country adds new colleagues, new teams and new ways of working. That makes a shared foundation essential.

The Academy gives newcomers a fast, first-hand understanding of what we do and why we do it. Just as important, it builds the cross-border connections that turn a group of new hires into one team.

Every story needs a starting point. Ours was Pauwenhof, our headquarters, where the group met over lunch and names started turning into faces.

Then the floor went to our own people. Colleagues from teams across the company took turns explaining what they do, how their work connects and what makes WDP tick. Our DNA, our business model, our ambitions: told by the people who live them every day.

Between sessions, everyone sat for a professional profile photoshoot. In the evening, a guided walk through Mechelen ended at a cosy dinner, where the conversations ran long after dessert.

On day two, we left the presentations behind and went where it all happens: our warehouses.

The group visited a selection of our reference sites, each telling a different chapter of the WDP story. A former industrial site given a second life through brownfield redevelopment. A port location that makes the scale of modern supply chains tangible, complete with the largest gate in our portfolio. And a classic logistics site, where the fundamentals of our business come together.

Walk through those buildings, talk to the people who run them every day, and the presentations from day one suddenly click. That is the power of good onboarding: not just telling new colleagues what we do, but showing them.

Add beautiful autumn weather, plenty of conversations and laughs, and a bus in full RSC Anderlecht branding. It drove our international group through Mechelen, Vilvoorde and, yes, right past the Antwerp football stadium. Belgian football fans will appreciate the irony.

The result: a memorable third edition and a group that now knows each other by name.

A big thank you to everyone who shared their knowledge, opened their doors and welcomed our newcomers. You made these two days possible.