diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/whizard/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/whizard/package.py
index a9ccf9de2ec..3297c2eddbe 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/whizard/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/whizard/package.py
@@ -103,6 +103,8 @@ def setup_build_environment(self, env):
         # and seems incompatible with
         # filter_compiler_wrappers, thus the
         # actual compilers need to be used to build
+        if self.spec.satisfies("+lcio"):
+            env.set("LCIO", self.spec["lcio"].prefix)
         env.set("CC", self.compiler.cc)
         env.set("CXX", self.compiler.cxx)
         env.set("FC", self.compiler.fc)