1979-2009: ERMO, ALREADY 30 YEARS OLD!

I must emphasis the word "already" because I have to admit that I can hardly believe how quickly the time has passed since 1979 when ERMO was established with 3 people on small premises in Marcillé La Ville.

Enormous progress has been made to create the present-day ERMO Group with its 150 employees, 4 production sites in France, 1 site in Poland and a commercial office in North America. Over the past 30 years, we have continually developed to become a major player in Europe in precision injection moulds.

External growth has provided considerable impetus for this development. In 1987, ERMO acquired TECHMO in Alençon followed in 1997 by 3MO in Laval, a unit positioned in the under 15T automobile mould market which was transferred at the end of 2007. MOULINDUSTRIE, a company specialised in multi-material moulds, joined the group in 2004 offering us new market perspectives.

At the same time, ERMO developed internally with creations of FREE INDUSTRIE, our testing and training centre in 1992 and MOLDS HIGH TECH in 2000, a unit specialised in multi-cavities moulds.

With a target export turnover constantly on the increase, we also had to become established abroad and did so with the setting up of ERMO BRASIL in 1999 (this company since has been transferred) and ERMOSOGA - Poland in 2002 followed by the opening of commercial offices, particularly in North America.

Each of these takeovers, creations or establishments was accompanied by major investments (over 20 million euros since 2000) as we have always been keen to obtain the latest generation of research and production resources for all our units and our head office. This technical requirement has enabled us to adapt over this 30 years period and access more strategic markets such as packaging, caps and closures, medical and cosmetics, leaving traditional moulds behind over the years in favour of high-technology and highprecision moulds.

In order to finance our development and confirm our reputation, we decided in 1998 to float ERMO on the Paris Stock exchange. This strategic decision also enabled us to move towards technological excellence.

This is just a brief summary of the 30 years adventure enjoyed by ERMO. But however good an idea may be, it will come to nothing without people to transform it into reality. Customers, employees and suppliers have all played a part in the development of our Group to make ERMO what it is today and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all.