the Serge Ferrari group breaks records and continues its development in Nord-Isère

Its flexible composite materials dress large stadiums, are used in fish farms but are also found on terraces, in chairs or pergolas. The Serge Ferrari group, headquartered in Rochetoirin near La Tour-du-Pin in Nord-Isère, is posting record growth in 2021, up more than 46%, 80% of which abroad. But he does not intend to stop there, explains Sébastien Baril, the group’s chairman of the board.

France Bleu Isère: Serge Ferrari’s turnover is up sharply, almost 286 million euros, it’s a record. You explain this result, among other things, by a refocusing of your activities. What does that mean ?

Sébastien Baril: In fact, for the first year, in 2021, we took advantage of all the possible synergies with the group’s various acquisitions that took place during the 2020s. We managed to work together effectively this year. 2021, to be able to take advantage in particular of this acquisition in Germany which has given us additional capacities with a reorganization of the marketing-sales team which explains these very good results for the group.

You want to increase this number even further next year. You have very specific products, others more general public. What avenues for development do you have?

We still have very significant areas of growth, particularly in Asia-Pacific, America, but also in Europe. And so we still have significant room for improvement on our products to meet demand for the evolution of habits and customs of end customers, of ourselves, individuals, who want to have more comfort, who will equip our terraces, who want to protect themselves from the sun and the heat and therefore our products find their perfect place in all these applications. So yes, we still have significant room for improvement and we are trying to take advantage of this and be effective in conquering new markets, new customers and new areas.

Faced with this progress, Serge Ferrari will expand its premises in Rochetoirin just next to La Tour-du-Pin, in Nord-Isère. What is the purpose of this extension?

This extension is above all to bring together all our research and development teams who are on several sites both in La Tour-du-Pin but also around the world, and to create our Innovation Center in order to be able to be more still effective, also giving ourselves a lot more resources for developments, for our innovation. It is indeed this new building which will be delivered in mid-2023.

We have seen it since the beginning of this interview, the company is doing very well in an economic context that is still unstable with the war in Ukraine, confinement in China. Do you have any fears on that side?

We obviously always look at our environment and the global economic environment. We are cautious about certain decisions. Now for the year 2022, we have done an excellent job on the purchasing side, on the supply side, to ensure that we cover all our raw materials. So we don’t have any difficulties in production. Afterwards, the price increase is a strong constraint that we try to minimize so that the whole chain can continue to work properly. We also have around ten people in China who are today confined to Shanghai and we are awaiting the reassuring news which is arriving, which will allow us to resume our activities in this area with serenity.

In this context of progress, Serge Ferrari has a recruitment plan of around 40 people in 2022