Testcentrum De Lille n.v. started in 1968 as a distributor of Ford agricultural and industrial tractors. The location in Harelbeke quickly became too small and in 1974 a new location in Lendelede was taken into use. Mr. A. De Lille (ing.) was far-sighted and had foreseen sufficient expansion possibilities with an available surface area of ​​+/- 10,000 m².

In the mid-1980s, agricultural tractor sales began to weaken and mergers between the various manufacturers were underway. mr. However, A. De Lille had always had a preference for special and/or adapted machines and since 1973 the company De Lille n.v. built the "Giraf". This was a special loader for storing and treating flax. Since there was a lot of interest in this type of aircraft, Mr. A. De Lille sought and found Merlo S.p.A. a suitable alternative to agricultural tractors. At the end of 86 a start was made with the import and distribution of the telescopic loader or better known as telehandler.
Launch and sales went well and in 1990 A. De Lille's vision came true with the Ford/New Holland – Fiat merger, now known as CNH. As a result of this merger, De Lille n.v. lost its dealership of Ford agricultural and industrial tractors. However, this was compensated by an expansion of the import activities of the Merlo telehandlers to the entire Benelux.

Since then, in addition to A. De Lille and his wife, S. De Lille and M. De Lille-Joiner have also been active in the company. Today, De Lille n.v. - in mid-2016 the name 'Testcentrum De Lille' was shortened to 'De Lille' - can commit itself 100% to its Benelux distribution network, which consists of 34 distributors for the entire BeNeLux. In addition to this import and distribution of Merlo telehandlers, the construction of attachments for telehandlers and small series for other sectors is also becoming increasingly important.