The extraordinary M. Brun, the inventor of Montverdun

He is undoubtedly better known in the north-west of Forez for having been mayor of his commune, Montverdun. And before that, vice-president of the economy of the late Pays d’Astrée. But it is not the politics that led and leads his life, more his resourcefulness, his ability to put a simple technical solution to a problem and, behind, to market it. Michel Brun is an inventor. His latest addition is called Nicotube and is used to quit smoking. Portrait.

We won’t dwell on his in-house mini hydroelectric power station. She operates the stream that runs through her property where stands an ex-18th mill.^e century and earned him a patent. We will not support his ex-activity of balneotherapy for horses either. Even if it has long earned him intense requests from the French equestrian world. There is already so much to say about its main activity …

At 67, Michel Brun does not consider stopping him for a second. If you know the joys of the baby fly, chances are you are using a device straight out of its common nighttime reflections. Inventions, man has accumulated dozens of them over the past thirty years. You have a high probability of having used them or of still using them in your daily life. Listening to him is not complicated. “I identify a problem. At night, I think about how to solve it. The next day I found it. But you know, to do what I do, you just have to be curious and want to work. « 

To do what I do, you just have to be curious and want to work.

Michel Brun

A first professional life with Formuling

Let’s add a sacred technical sense that does not deny this industrial freight elevator recovered and installed at his home to act as an elevator! If we were looking for a new self-taught definition, “Michel Brun” would be fine. From a family originally from Allier, the former mayor of Montverdun does not, however, testify to any engineering degree. “I am comfortable with mechanics, machining, plastics, thermoforming, etc. All this but on the other hand not at all on electronics! « 

This son of merchants therefore “only” had the bac in his pocket when he joined his brothers in the “Formuling” company in Unieux. It designs and sells automotive accessories: sports steering wheels, carpets, car seats, hubcaps, booster seats, etc. And Michel Brun, who recognizes himself « Handyman since childhood », will quickly contribute to the development of the design office. He then headed for years the SME, which grew to reach around 200 employees at the turn of the 1990s.

Childcare: a constant around his inventions

Michel Brun is everywhere: innovation, products, marketing, administration, sales. It is stressful and much more than taking. Too many in fact: this heavy smoker suffers a heart attack that he judges today « Beneficial ». We are in 1995 and much more than quitting smoking, he decides to change his life. “I took a sheet. I made two columns: « what I want », « what I no longer want ». «  Direction calm, the countryside and Montverdun to create his activity as an independent inventor. The EMPS company was born.

Its first innovation will be sold for years by mass distribution until a certain brand called Febreze drives it out of the market, like a steamroller. Under the Deopro, Splendair and Odolyse brands, the fragrance-free odor destroyer designed by Michel Brun had preceded it. “I hated perfume diffusers in cars, so I had this idea. My clients have notified me of Febreze’s arrival. As I am not Don Quixote, I stopped immediately. «  He quickly moved on to something else, and began to take an interest in a constant of his future inventions: childcare.

He makes prototypes, tests and molds from home

Here he is, creator of a fever-testing pacifier for babies. Then follows the whole series of certainly very useful but not very inviting baby nose cleaners that we have been able to find abroad, as far as the United States. The solution is therefore innovative. Baby comfort, Bébisol, Steripan, Stérimar, Tigex, Mercurochrome …: if you are parents or grandparents, these childcare brands, to name a few because there are about fifteen concerned, may mean something to you … They include models created by Michel Brun in their ranges.

The latter thus works as a wholesaler for brands and directly for mass distribution and networks supplying pharmacies. EMPS also having its own brands. In all cases, he makes prototypes, tests and molds at home, in his workshop. Before entrusting them to subcontractors in France or in Europe responsible for the production of series. Its logistics are entrusted to a center in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, a paradise for the sector in North Isère.

Michel Brun is behind at least 35 patents

Childcare (we can also cite this swab cases) therefore, but also hygiene (a system of rechargeable cotton swabs) or even paramedical with this intelligent pillbox to facilitate the taking of drugs, even by a blind person: the inventions of Michel Brun are aimed at to make people’s daily lives easier with simple innovations that you had to think about. From memory, he has counted at least 35 patents. Everything did not always work, such as the idea of ​​selling a range of auto products in recyclable cardboard jars in the 2000s. It had arrived, commercially speaking, too early in the eyes of the large distribution which had refused it …

« I don’t work, it’s passionate », considers Michel Brun, whose company is at a turning point this fall. His daughter Sophie, she for whom, « It was complicated to explain, as a child at school, what daddy was doing » Indeed joined him this year in his company to help him launch EMPS Pharmacie while continuing the wholesale activities. “I will become my own competitor with other products! « , laughs Michel Brun. On these ranges, Sophie will develop the direct marketing and sales aspect, given turnkey to pharmacies, going as far as providing them with video demonstrations to display in their pharmacies.

Nicotube, « His greatest invention »

It must be said that the entrepreneur announces to put up for sale via this channel what he considers « His greatest invention » : the Nicotube solution, already available on the web, to stop smoking, had been waiting in the files for more than 13 years. The principle: suggest that smokers use a series of eight nozzles in succession, each time reducing a little more – according to the desired rate – the volume of smoke. “Getting rid of addiction is made easier. And I know the problem very well: it’s a smoker’s response to a smoker’s problem « , underlines Michel Brun.

«  Tests have shown 92% effectiveness. For half, a total shutdown in a few months, if not a very reduced consumption. While nicotine substitutes cause 84% relapse. “For this product, the inventor called on two companies from the Loire. Duwa (Saint-Etienne) to produce the cleaning swabs. And e-Obs (Roanne) to produce the web development.