Albert Bert, co-chairman of the board of directors of the Kinepolis Group died on 21 May 2002 aged 74.

Bert was widely acknowledged as one of the innovators of how movie theatres are operated in Belgium. In the sixties, he took over the Cinema Majestiek in Harelbeke from his father. In 1970, the building was converted to house two theatres, thus becoming the first 'duplex' in Belgium.

A year later, he and his sister-in-law, Rose Claeys-Vereecke developed the first purpose built multiplex Trioscoop Hasselt. In 1975, he opened Pentascoop Kortrijk. He gave multiplex a whole new meaning when he built the Decascoop in Ghent in 1981 which housed ten screens. In that same year, he founded Decatron, to pursue the development and construction of multiplexes.

In 1988, the Bert and Claeys families decided to join forces for the development of the world's first megaplex in Brussels. In 1993, they did the same in Antwerp when Metropolis opened.

On 19 December 1997, the Bert and Claeys family businesses merged into the Kinepolis Group N.V. Albert Bert's effort were rewarded with three prestigious awards that year: Cinema Expo in Amsterdam voted him 'Best Exhibitor of the Year', Knack acclaimed him 'Manager of the Year', and the French business school Insead awarded him the 'Insead Innovator Prize'.

On 9 April 1998, the Kinepolis Group was listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange

Inspired by Albert Bert, the European expansion went further with the construction of Kinepolis theatres in Madrid, Thionville, Mulhouse, Nîmes, Schaffhausen, Pioltello, Valencia, Poznan (Poland).