Studio 100 was set up in 1996 by Verhulst and Bourlon, together with Danny Verbiest, who at the time was the voice of Samson the dog in the TV series Samson & Gert. Verbiest left the company in 2005, and his place was taken by venture capitalists Fortis Private Equity.

In the beginning, Samson & Gert was the company’s only production, but they added Kabouter Plop, Mega Mindy and a growing range of other children’s shows. In 2002, the company took over the management of girl-group K3. More recently, they produced a film of Mega Mindy and the smash-hit musical Daens.

The company has also expanded its horizons beyond the Dutch-speaking world, with a takeover of EM Entertainment in Germany last year and their archive of programmes like Lassie and the classic Pippi Longstocking. Studio 100 has also signed cooperation agreements with the BBC for two animation series, while the rights to air Bumba, the series for toddlers, has been sold to Al Jazeera. The company is now active in virtually all media markets, as well as licensing a massive amount of merchandising of its top properties and running theme parks based around Kabouter Plop. Last year’s sales were €107 million, with forecasts of €125m for this year.

“We’re a people business. We don’t deal in cutting-edge technology,” said Bourlon. “It’s all about people making fantastic things from a blank sheet of paper. We’re the perfect example of the creative economy, and we should be proud that we’ve been able to overcome language barriers with our creativity.”

Verhulst added: “Twelve years ago we had our first staff meeting with 10 people in an old building that was much too big for us” said Verhulst. “Hans took a marker pen and wrote our main goals on a wall that was due to come down. An amazing number of those plans have come true. But there was nothing about widereaching international plans on that wall. That’s what we’re busy making happen today. Studio 100 is going beyond even its original dreams.”