La Poste, Air France… The secrets of the vitality of Breton Armor-Lux, which outfits French companies

This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the report above. Click on the video to watch it in full. In its workshops, the uniforms of large companies account for 50% of the activity: La Poste, Air France and, since last year, those of Carrefour supermarkets.

But for this last client, the parts designed here are manufactured in China and the Maghreb. “In Europe, unfortunately, the absolute economic opening of Europe has practically caused the entire European textile fabric to disappear, and has been doing so for years,” explains Jean-Guy Le Floch, CEO of Armor-Lux. In the aisles of a supermarket, employees wear technical pants and t-shirts and, on their jackets, zippers and blue-white-red piping.

"I've had it for a year, you can see, the white is still impeccable, it hasn't shrunk, the color is original. Frankly, I think it's well made", attests Abdel Salam Bakari, non-food manager - Carrefour. The brand chose a French service provider for the quality of the design, but not only that.

"Armor-Lux, they offered the best balance, the best quality-price ratio between production and finished products, and then the way in which these products were going to be produced on the production lines", explains Stéfen Bompais, communications director - Carrefour. 60 million euros in orders from companies each yearBut how can we relocate production? 35% of SNCF uniforms are manufactured in Quimper (Finistère).

To win the contract in the face of foreign competition, we had to innovate. The controllers' sweater, for example, is made of both cotton and wool. To mix the materials, an employee invented a completely new manufacturing process, but remains very discreet: "I can't tell you more without betraying the secret, so I remain cautious about that", confides Christian D'Hervé, manager of the knitting workshop.

He only specifies that "no two machines are identical, like this one", and confirms having completely remodeled it for his product. From its warehouses, the company is also able to deliver the clothing of 25,000 rail workers to their homes. She even provides after-sales service for her orders on the Internet and over the telephone.

"We no longer do the same job. Even if you have the impression that there are clothes everywhere, it is no longer the same job. We have become a global services company which, in addition, manufactures the clothes", underlines Jean-Guy Le Floch.

Orders from companies here represent 60 million euros each year. Enough to reassure the company's 600 employees.

Machine-translated from French