Strength through unity

In 2000‚ about ten mould-makers from Oyonnax met to discuss how to deal with competition from Asia. Three of them decided to work together, and formed a service company, AGP Développement‚ in which they each had an equal share. A charter was drawn up which defined how expenses were to be shared, and importantly how the contracts were to be awarded. Gradually, different job functions were pooled including those of sales director‚ purchasing director‚ positions in the accounts department‚ the IT department‚ deliveries‚ the design office in India, and so on. People had told them ‘it’ll never work!’, but the results proved them wrong. From a turnover of 7 million Euros and 70 employees in 2000, the company now has 200 employees and a turnover of 24 million Euros. In the meantime, half of the mould-makers in Oyonnax have disappeared. The members of AGP Développement would like others to copy this example, but there are not enough companies which are persuaded by AGP’s experience.