Belgian businessman, the brother of Adolphe, Auguste, Célina, Édouard, Léopold and Louis J. Delhaize. On 1 July 1867, he joined forces with his brother Auguste to set up the first general partnership Delhaize Frères et Cie. The same year, he encouraged two other members of the family to embark on the same path: Jules Vieujant created the branches of La Louvière and Mons, while Édouard Delhaize founded the branches of Namur and Huy in conjunction with the Maison Adolphe Delhaize opened in 1866 in Châtelet. With Édouard Delhaize and Jules Vieujant, he created in 1871, in Brussels, a limited partnership which united them, from 1871 to 1874, with Adolphe Delhaize. The objective was the sale of foodstuffs, wines and spirits, through branches. Following the departure of Adolphe, this first company was dissolved in 1874 and the three other partners took over the various branches of the country, as well as the central office in Brussels. They founded a new company, joined by the younger brother, Léopold Delhaize. In 1895, the firm again became a general partnership uniting Jules Delhaize, Jules Vieujant and the widow of Édouard Delhaize. It was transformed into an S.A. in 1907 under the corporate name Établissements Delhaize Frères et Cie Le Lion. It was Jules Delhaize who imagined the “Delhaize organization”, an integrated distribution system with multiple branches from a central warehouse. By reducing the number of intermediaries, it could offer its products at very competitive fixed prices. Very quickly, the firm decided to produce a series of items itself, the manufacture of which it could make profitable by selling through its branches, the number of which grew rapidly: from 188 in 1890, there were 744 of them the day before the war. The staff were introduced to modern methods of distribution, which were uniform throughout the country. The firm hired independent traders who bought their goods from Delhaize. A very discreet character, who remained single, Jules Delhaize died without descendants and left to his brother-in-law, Jules Vieujant, the management of the company. He died on 13 August 1898 in Ixelles at age 69.
Link to Wikipedia biography (French)