Fabien Debecq is the founder of the prosperous international group QNT, specialising in sports nutrition and food supplements, and the shareholder-president of Sporting de Charleroi. In thirty years, the native of Charleroi has gone very far and very high. Even though at the beginning the path seemed to lead nowhere. A story in twelve acts of an exceptional journey.
Act I.
The evil eye
(and childhood in the Pays Noir)
Fabien Debecq was born in Charleroi in the summer of 1963. A rotten summer, after the coldest winter of the twentieth century. Not the best omens. Moreover, “in a very modest environment. My father was a steelworker at Hainaut Sambre, in Montignies-sur-Sambre. My mother was a housewife. They did everything they could, we were always very tidy, but it was difficult: before the end of the month, my mum would go to the baker and ask for bread on credit and my dad went to work with dry bread…”
Tragedy struck: “To earn a bit of money, my older brother did the shopping for an elderly man who lived 200 metres away. One day he went into his house, there was an explosion and they both died. He was 16. I was 13 and suddenly I was alone, because my younger brother was only 4. At school, with everything that had happened, it wasn’t great. I was at the Pie X college in Châtelineau. I finished my secondary studies, and that was it.”
Act II.
The lucky star
(and the glimmer of bodybuilding)
But something else began. “Around me, a lot of young people drifted, went down the wrong path. I could have as well. But at 16 I met a friend, older than me, who practised weight training. He persuaded me to start. It was in the only gym in Charleroi, in Ville-Basse. I was the youngest. My physique developed very quickly and everyone encouraged me to compete. So I decided to discipline myself. I transformed myself, even inside: I had a goal now.”
There was still a problem: “I didn’t like showing myself, I was very modest, I wore big jumpers so no one could see anything… I had to push myself a lot, especially since bodybuilding was poorly regarded.” It was a good decision: “I entered a competition and I won. Then a second, and I won again. And so on. At 20 I was selected for the European Championship, under 80 kilos, in Boulogne-Billancourt, in Paris. And I won.”
Act III.
The Brussels miracle
(and selling image rights)
He was now among the elite of bodybuilding. The consequence: “A guy from Brussels who represented Twinlab, an American brand, the most powerful in the global sports nutrition market, contacted me: ‘Can we use your image?’ I wasn’t paid, I just received free products but for me it was a miracle! What pride!”
And to earn a living? “Even semi-professionally, it didn’t bring in much. I was still living with my parents. During the week I worked at Fun Gym, which Jacques Spingler had just opened in Charleroi, and at weekends with Mario Pongoli, the friend who had introduced me to bodybuilding and for a roofing company. I was a labourer: I climbed onto roofs, prepared mortar… But at 20 and a half came military service. In Florennes. In the UDA, just below the paratroopers. Lorry driver, then in the kitchen.”
Act IV.
Sales in the gym
(and the beginning of business)
After his military service, at 22, he returned to the gym in Charleroi. “Full time. Jacques saw that I was determined. Because I have always tried to be a perfectionist in everything I do. He quickly offered me the position of manager. About fifteen people worked there, there were a thousand active members, a bar, men’s sauna, women’s sauna, jacuzzi, private lessons… It was very avant-garde. And it worked extremely well. I’ve always had a commercial instinct: at 16 I went door-to-door selling key rings and it worked…”
“The gym was focused on subscriptions. I asked: ‘Is it a problem if I resell the products I receive here?’”
But Debecq saw further. “Generally, a gym has two sources of revenue: subscriptions and nutrition products. Yet the club was focused on subscriptions. I asked Jacques: ‘Would it be a problem if I resold the products from my American sponsor here?’ Green light. My first objective, to respect my boss, was that everyone who entered left with a subscription. The second was to advise and sell products. And it worked immediately. Very quickly I bought them from the importer and resold them. Everyone was happy.”
Act V.
The independent salesman
(and the price of success)
So much so that six months later, “it was always every six months”, the importer paid him a visit. “I had become his best customer! He proposed that I become his salesman for Wallonia. I jumped at the chance. I explained to Jacques: ‘We open at 9 am but the peak is from 4 pm to 10 pm. I proposed to be there only during that time slot. Before that I would do another job.’” Deal.
In 1985. Gyms were flourishing. “People recognised me because of my European champion title. I explained that I had the opportunity to sell Twinlab products and in 90% of cases it was: ‘Fabien, we’ll remove all the products we have, put yours in their place.’ In exchange I would come to train, coach guys who wanted to compete, organise small nutrition seminars. We would set up a table, display the products and I would explain: I take this, this and this. And everything sold.” Result: “Six months later, the Brussels importer could no longer keep up.”
Act VI.
The American raid
(and the ambition of the bold)
Debecq still lives with his parents and once a week goes to Brussels because “in Charleroi there were not many athletes at his level. This sport taught me that you only progress by being around people stronger than you.” He therefore went to the California Gym, run by Jean-Claude Van Damme. “I knew him well; I’m still in contact with his family.”
There, reading several American magazines specialising in the sector, Fabien arranged some meetings. In the United States. “It was either that or returning full time to the gym in Charleroi. But I knew that if you lock yourself into a gym it becomes a prison: always the same thing, the same questions, the same people… That wasn’t what I was looking for.”
The American idea grew. “I had saved a bit of money but I didn’t speak English. Through contacts from the gym I found a woman who had just left Sabena. She spoke English and flights were free for her: we left. Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco… The Americans laughed a lot.”
Act VII.
The Big Leap
(and joining Nature’s Best)
While waiting for the return flight to Brussels, at Boston airport, Fabien Debecq bought a Canadian bodybuilding magazine “because it was in French”. He saw a brand he didn’t know: Nature’s Best. “I called the number in Quebec. The boss answered and explained that he had exclusivity for Canada but the brand is from New York. So I asked the lady to call from the airport so they could send me a catalogue.”
It arrived later by post. “And it was only photocopies. But something appealed to me. And with Twinlab I had no future. So the choice was simple: return to the gym or go for it and become an importer. Even without knowing how importing worked!”
“I bought half a pallet, then one, then two, then three… It was always urgent”
Fabien chose the second option and Nature’s Best made him its importer in Belgium. “I needed the equivalent of at least €10,000: below that the Americans wouldn’t sell to me. So I went to see Mario Pongoli. And he signed for me at the bank. A strong gesture I will never forget.”
A gesture that proved worthwhile: “It started faster than I expected. I hired someone to call the United States because my English wasn’t great, even though I had started private lessons. I bought half a pallet, then one, then two, then three… It was always urgent.”
So much so that the owner of the brand in New York, Hal Katz, wanted to see this booming small market. “I lived in a 60 m² flat just behind the Sporting stadium. I could hold a mini-conversation in English but my warehouse was my garage. My office was my living room. My van was terrible, with a piece of string holding the passenger door closed. A Michelin-starred restaurant, I didn’t even know it existed; a hotel, there wasn’t one in Charleroi… People advised me to rent a Mercedes and occupy a fake office for the duration of his stay. But I thought that if I lied it would come back to haunt me. I showed my hand, telling myself ‘either it works or it doesn’t’: I picked him up, took him to three small seminars in gyms. And it was huge. My luck was that Hal had a similar background to mine: he came from a poor family. And when he left we both had tears in our eyes.”
Act VIII.
Another lucky star
(and economic ascent)
The connection was so strong that Hal Katz opened every door. “He told me: ‘I’ll give you all the credit you need. You no longer pay in advance but develop the European market.’ After five years the idea of manufacturing the products in Europe rather than importing them became obvious. Transport, entry taxes, different regulations on vitamin dosage or packaging, financially it was heavy. If you can save that, you can invest in marketing and move to the next stage.”
Aged 29 Debecq finally spread his wings. He left central Charleroi and built a house in Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes. “Living there, I would never have imagined it! I stayed there for seventeen years.” Before moving to Walloon Brabant.
Then Hal’s American partner died. “I replaced him. He focused on the United States, I focused on Europe and the Middle East. We were progressing very well. We sold quite a lot of American energy drinks made by McCain from a production plant in Belgium. And in June 2009, after twenty years of collaboration with Hal, the big brother I never had, an American investment fund bought Nature’s Best.”
Act IX.
Solo flight
(and the creation of QNT)
A clause stipulated that Fabien would continue working there for a year and a half, while Hal Katz could leave earlier. “The investment fund’s vision was to move into the medical market. But for Europe it was too early. I told them I was probably not the right person. Since they didn’t care about the bodybuilding niche where I had my network, they allowed me to continue there, thinking I would fail. Two years later they more or less recovered their investment by selling the company for 153 million dollars. I thought: right, I’m going to create my own brand. And I launched Quality Nutrition Technology. QNT.”
But it was 2011 and in bodybuilding USA products were still king. “If I went to my clients saying ‘Do you stay with the Americans or buy a Belgian product?’ I was dead. So we did the opposite: go to the United States as a European company and try to position ourselves on the American market. While continuing to produce what I could in Europe with much smaller volumes.”
“In the United States we emphasised that QNT meant European quality. In Europe we emphasised that QNT meant American technology”
QNT was born in Los Angeles, then moved to New York “because the time difference was complicated”. Six months later the company appeared on Fox Business, a national American television channel. “As a European company settling in the United States and creating jobs.”
“I then knocked on the door of GNC, the largest American chain specialising in sports nutrition, with 5,000 stores. And GNC took me on as a supplier.”
Act X.
The Belgian Leader
(and the global top 15)
When QNT launched, Debecq had around thirty employees. “Most worked with me at Nature’s Best.” Today, excluding production, “we have around 250 employees spread geographically. With production you can add at least another hundred. We are present in more than 60 countries.”
With offices and production centres in Europe, India, Russia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, the USA and Iran. In Belgium alone (turnover around €21 million) the products are found at Medi-Market, New Pharma, Farmaline, Colruyt, Decathlon and Intersport.
“Today we have around 300 products. Sports nutrition, wellbeing, weight control, supplements… We try to do what we know best while being proactive in ideas and marketing. People often nickname us ‘the king of protein’.”
Have they become one of the biggest players in the global market? “Let’s say we are among the good ones. Among the respected ones. In Belgium we are the leader. And I think we are in the global top 15.”
Act XI.
The bulldog becomes a zebra
(and the presidency of Sporting)
Debecq’s spectacular rise has not prevented him from remaining loyal to his Charleroi roots. During the Nature’s Best years, “we rented a kind of office with warehouses in Gilly, a district of Charleroi. But the access allowed only small containers to be imported. We needed something bigger.”
Non-profit Reconversion was seeking companies to settle on the site of a former sugar refinery. “Investment for the land: a symbolic franc. Financing for construction of the building: 0% interest. We built 1,000 m² there. It is still where QNT Belgium is located today, but at 6–7,000 m².”
His loyalty is perhaps more nuanced when it comes to football. As a young man he played for Olympic. He was a “Dogue”. Mehdi Bayat made him switch to the “Zebras”.
“A mutual friend introduced us. Mehdi’s aim was to find sponsorship for Sporting de Charleroi, where he was commercial director. He convinced me and we have never separated since. When his uncle Abbas Bayat decided to sell the club in 2012, Mehdi knew there was potential even though the club was virtually bankrupt, but he didn’t have the means to buy it. Abbas asked me if I was interested. I knew nothing about it, it wasn’t my profession, but I’m curious by nature… Three months later we were taking over Sporting.”
At the beginning Fabien Debecq owned 95% of the shares and Mehdi Bayat 5%. “I helped him restructure the club, a bit like a copy-paste of what I had done in my companies.” Today the club has recovered both sporting and financial stability.
Is football a business like any other? “The adrenaline every weekend, at every level of the club before the match, you can’t find that in another business. But the number of clubs that go bankrupt or lose money… It’s also a very hypocritical world. So you have to be careful, very careful.”
Act XII.
The demand for excellence
(and the rehabilitation of the family)
If he had to draw a conclusion, Debecq first states that “there is always a way out. Always.” He himself is striking proof of that.
He also insists that he is “a true self-taught man. I learned everything on the job. But I sought guidance, for English, for understanding numbers. I never worked blindly.”
He lists his personal mantra:
“Discipline and vision matter more than the starting point; lasting results are never immediate, in sport or in business; the long term is the entrepreneur’s most underestimated weapon; growth only has value if it is structured and controlled; the role of a leader is to give a clear direction and create the conditions for lasting performance; I have never sought visibility for its own sake but always prioritised long-term construction; I never believe I have arrived, I always feel everything can collapse at any moment, so I always want to protect myself and keep growing.”
“The long term is the entrepreneur’s most underestimated weapon.”
By being “demanding with myself, and therefore demanding with my colleagues”. Also by trying to “maintain the best possible lifestyle. I don’t drink alcohol, except sometimes a good red wine. I train almost every day: a lot of cardio, a little weight training. At home, in my gym, with Enzo Scifo, who doesn’t live far away, we are very close, or in hotels abroad. And I eat protein, in whatever form.”
With the feeling of having taken revenge on fate? “I don’t really like that word. When I bought Sporting, I invited my mother and we took her onto the pitch with Mehdi. Imagine: this woman who used to go and get bread on credit, and her son buys Sporting… That isn’t revenge. It is rehabilitating a name that was almost buried: Debecq.”
Photos Éric Herchaft
