This discount flat came at a crucial time

They arrived in rows close to the Ministry of finance, last week, at the fourth award of the business strategy. Ten finalists and five winners of the young leads to the large group. It is his mode of selection which is the value of this award. Each of the 110 candidates was the subject of a strategic analysis six months led by a team of students of high school or University. The final choice is operated by regional juries, and then by a national jury (which part the author of these lines). Upon arrival, the winners draw a form of Gallery of the evolution of the company, of less than EUR 1 million of turnover in billions. Small Maximis, offering advice and an Internet product clever calculation and optimization of the pensions at SEB, one of the flagship of the French industry.

The question is of course how to pass Maximis to SEB, of the young shoot to become multinational SMEs. This is the famous issue of the growth of small businesses, which turlupine policies and economists and explaining a part of our delay of competitiveness to the Germans. The France is no shortage of manufacturers of automobiles or supermarket chains, it lack of SEB.

Let us therefore in mid-table, at this stage - between 50 and 500 million in sales - where the fates forge. The presentation, one of the winners of this year, was built to the strength of the wrist in the gersois village of the Jourdain, 40 kilometres west of Toulouse. The company is expected to reach the 50 million euros of turnover this year and is already, with 270 people, the number one European swimming pool shelter. Except the accident, she is promised to a bright future. And this for three reasons: a strong culture, a successful transmission and promising prospects of development.

The culture. The DNA of the company, it is the clan Chapus. Celine and Charles, children, and their spouses Marianne and Olivier, Serge, AHS, and Thérèse, the Chief of the clan, which holds the stock market and makes the decisions. Self-taught, the father and the mother resold metal ladders on fairs in the region. Mortifiée to see his children to unemployment, Thérèse wants to start his business by taking advantage of the skills of his family in the work of aluminum. She mortgage her house, borrowed 100,000 francs (15,000 euros), and, in 1996, part in the assault of the annual fair of Toulouse. A beating of enraged commercial incentives (no down payment, regulations for the installation). The first orders arrive. Lack of means, the family is just itself and cannot rely on word-of-mouth. Righteous constraint.

And it works. Under the baton of Thérèse taking finance, each finds its place. Serge to the commercial with his daughter Celine. His brother Charles in development, Marianne in the planning and Olivier to the logistics. Soon, they understand the interest of the communication: advertising in the magazines TV and coupons in return. Integration, innovation (decisive invention of the sliding low shelter), communication and rigorous management of the expenditure are marvel. Not to mention the control of the major trade fairs. The blow of accelerator will come in 2003, with the Raffarin law on the safety of swimming pools which imposes a device. The shelter is this function and allows to lengthen swimming two months. Sales soar. Then, in 2005, Thérèse, already featured media and awards of all kinds (manager, innovation, growth...), decided to hand. "It was too large, were being lost," says - it. Everyone in the family does not agree, but as it is she who decides...

Fine fly, the Patron Saint, beyond his filial love, probably felt that the business would become complicated. A 30 million euros and 150 employees, the company took the weight at a critical time. The one where needed to manage the decline of the market by the end of the duty of equipment. The risk of tripping on the first hitch in its existence was great. And then, when a financial down Paris and offers two years of sales...

The transmission. This is the second age of existence. Specialized investment AtriA Capital Partners, in the resumption of SME Fund, will seek a manager seasoned, Jean-Pierre Charpentier (former pattern of France recreation then CEO of the chain of clothing Jacadi) and offers him to invest alongside her in the case. Fifty-nine years and accompanied by his Finance Director, François-Xavier Desgrippes, agreed to replay version business of "happiness is in the Meadow", Etienne Chatilliez film. He will leave his Paris apartment in the avenue Foch (side Sun), to ask his suitcases to the Jourdain.

The two men landed in a medium that they do not know, but with solid knowledge in management and marketing. Jean-Pierre Charpentier does not affect the fundamentals: the integration of the value chain, from production to installation through the commercial, the concern of constant innovation (10 patents filed per year) and communication, which absorbs 10 of turnover. Simply, the two men are putting the company in the industrial age. Cardboard sheets are replaced by software that handles appointments of the business, while another optimizes trucks touring. In terms of communication, if newspapers TV remained good vectors, both men have developed two masters Tools package. On the one hand, the catalogue, vector image (and imaginary) and crucial asset of the choice of the client - Ikea knows something. And, on the other hand, the Web. A new site is established and the company plays the Google map, which cost him almost 2 of its turnover. Powerful and tools easy to translate from one country to another. This discount flat came at a crucial time. As anticipated, the market of the swimming pool shelter turned, while the price of aluminum flew. To maintain its growth, the company operated two additional engines. First of the diversification of products through acquisition. In 2007, it purchases a producer of shelter high, very close to the veranda, to complete its range, in 2010 a producer of very large size for collective pools shelters. And then presentation has accelerated its international expansion. Now, all neighbours of the France are covered.

The prospects. At the age of sixty-four, Jean-Pierre Charpentier plans to distance, satisfied to have placed the company on solid rails of growth. His greatest achievement will may have been décorréler the progress of its sales of new pools. In 2008 and 2009, the swimming pools market plunged more than 30, when presentation sales grew 10, despite the crisis. But, especially, with his modern industrial and commercial organization, the company is ready for a market that it considers colossal. In France, the more equipped countries per capita after the United States, Europe and even overseas. "We have done studies, we are ready to go," enthuses Jean-Pierre Charpentier. But he who discovered the charms of the Gascon country and thinking to settle in Catalonia, next to the Chapus, the already head elsewhere. The third stage, sales to three or four digits, or even the stock market, will be without him. The new age of presentation can start because each has played its role at best. The family, the financial manager. And if it was, finally, the true recipe for growth