The high growth of the ERMO Group

Having started his career as a setter and mould maker‚ Jean-Yves Pichereau became a teacher at the age of twenty-four and then at twenty-six created his own company, ERMO‚ which makes moulds and high precision tools for plastic injection moulding. When he started anticipating that the market demand for his products would take off‚ he began thinking like an industrialist and not like a simple subcontractor. ERMO is one of the first mould manufacturers to introduce computer numerical control (CNC) machines (in 1982), CATIA software (in 1988), robots (in 1990), ISO standards certifications (in 1993)‚ and to implement new techniques and provide upstream and downstream services. Since certain sectors are now being manufactured in Asia (such as cars, automobile‚ household appliances and mobile telephones), Pichereau shifted some of the group’s activity towards the cork market, and the packaging, cosmetics, and medical markets. Since this reorientation, the company’s growth is in two digits (49 % in 2011), was successfully floated on the stock exchange since 1998‚ and has become increasingly international (70 % of its turnover is generated by export sales). Today, it is preparing to merge with another mould manufacturer in order to ensure its longevity.