Lafuma
| Lafuma AG
|
|
|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| ISIN | FR0000035263 |
| founding | 1930 |
| Seat | France |
| management | Felix Sulzberger ( CEO ) Thomas Lustenberger (Board of Directors) |
| sales | 225 million euros (2012) |
| Website | www.lafuma-group.de |
The Lafuma AG is a French manufacturer of sportswear and equipment, as well as garden furniture.
Brands
The following brands belong to the Lafuma Group (as of 2015):
- Lafuma (outdoor clothing and garden furniture),
- Millet (mountain clothing and equipment),
- Oxbow (surf and snowboards),
- Eider (ski fashion and mountain sports clothing)
- Killy (ski fashion after the skier [Jean-Claude Killy])
In 2013, the Swiss laundry company Calida , which is already involved in Lafuma, announced that it would take over Lafuma. Felix Sulzberger is in the operational management of both companies.
history
Victor, Alfred and Gabriel Lafuma were originally tanners and saddlers in Anneyron , 70 km south of Lyon , France. In 1928 the eldest son, Victor, founded his own company in the middle of the village on Place Rambaud. Two years later, all the brothers worked together and founded the “Société LAFUMA Frères SARL”.
Initially, the company produced all kinds of functional bags, for example bicycle and motorcycle bags, shopping bags, meal bags (in French “musette”, a bag to transport lunch - in German: “feed sack”) and accessories such as suspenders. They sold these in their own shop called “Chez Lafuma”. They also sold backpacks from another manufacturer called Millet . The brothers soon developed their own version of a functional and practical backpack that allows you to adjust the load and body constitution. The patent was granted to them on January 22nd, 1936: the sac tyrolien perfectionné was created, in German, the "improved Tyrolean (rucksack) sack", fitted with fittings. This fitting is manufactured by the Rodet company, also from the region.
This began the success of the young manufacturer ; Backpacks were in demand. The company had 80 employees; it produced 1,200 rucksacks a day, 200 of them with the fitting, which from then on shaped the success of the company's further developments.
In 1936 Lafuma equipped many French members of the scout movement , and some of the mountaineers of the first French expedition in the Himalayas . A documentary was made about it, “Karakoram”, by Marcel Ichac (1937), which proves this. From 1940 the equipment from Lafuma was part of the equipment of the soldiers of the French army, but it also accompanied celebrities and scientists such as Paul-Emile Victor to the North Pole in 1947, Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau , Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on Mount Everest .
After the Second World War, the army was dropped from the customer base, but the increase in automobiles in the household and the new holiday trends boosted business again. In 1954, the brothers expanded their range with camping equipment and accessories, such as (mummy) sleeping bags, tents, folding furniture, and garden furniture.
The Lafuma brothers missed the changes on the French sales market from the 1970s, especially in terms of sales by sporting goods retail chains such as Decathlon or Intersport , which founded their own brands and became strong competitors in France.
In 1984 Lafuma filed for bankruptcy and was taken over by Philippe Joffards, who is a grandson of one of the founding members. He restructured the company and diversified the range with sportswear and a novelty in France: a backpack as a school satchel.
In 1986 part of the production was relocated from France to Sousse, Tunisia and several sales offices were opened in Europe; shortly afterwards in the USA and Asia. In 1991 Lafuma entered the sportswear market. In 1992 part of the production was relocated, this time to Hungary. Technical textiles are developed there. In 1995 Millet was taken over and other takeovers followed, for example the Le Chameau and Big Pack brands.
Lafuma has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1997. Until 2011, operational management was in the hands of Philippe Joffard. At the beginning of 2012, Felix Sulzberger, who had been on the board of directors since 2004 and has been CEO of the Swiss lingerie manufacturer Calida since 2001, took over the management . This has been Lafuma's largest shareholder with around 15% since the beginning of 2013 and announced at the end of 2013 that it would take over Lafuma.
Lafuma today
In 2012 the Lafuma group had a turnover of around 225 million euros. Over half of the company's turnover is now generated with clothes. The Lafuma brand is the largest contributor to the Group's total sales, accounting for around 45%, followed by Oxbow, Millet and Chameau. Exact figures for Killy are not published. The most important sales market in Lafuma is France with around 60% of sales. Production takes place in China, France, Hungary, Tunisia and Morocco.
Lafuma and the environment
Since 2008 Lafuma has organized an annual cleaning campaign on Mont Blanc in collaboration with the French Alpine Club (CAF). Mountain guides from Chamonix and technical advisors from the Lafuma Group take care of the coordination. Volunteers collect around 3 tons of waste on the “Mer de Glace” glacier, which tourists leave there every year.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The patent is visible at http://www.directorypatent.com/FR/796439-a.html or the notice of recognition http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=FR&NR=796439A&KC=A&FT = D & ND = 1 & date = 19360407 & DB = & locale = en_EP
- ↑ The successors of the Rodet company still exist today. At the time Lafuma was founded, the Rodet company was represented in almost all schools in France, because they manufactured the fittings for schoolchildren's desks, which were extremely hard-wearing and where generations of French people sat. The family style is unmistakably recognizable from the images of the furniture currently on offer. Internet presence of the successor
- ↑ Lafuma à Anneyron. Claude and Michel Seyve in conversation with Maurice Lafuma. In: Études drômoises. Ed. AUED, Valence, n ° 61 de mars 2015, pp. 32-37. on-line
- ↑ Expedition leader: Henry de Ségogne, members of the team: Pierre Allain, Jean Carle, Jean Charignon, Jean Deudon, Marcel Ichac ( cineast ), Jean Leininger, Louis Neltner, Jean Arlaud, Jacques Azémar. Destination: Hidden Peak ( Gasherbrum I I, 8 086 m) Aborted due to the monsoon.
- ↑ Even today, Lafuma accompanies athletes like Catherine Destivelle on her legendary solo climbing tour on the Grandes Jorassesm
- ↑ 2003 Lafuma ventures into new markets e.g. B. according to this report in the business newspaper L'Express: http://lentreprise.lexpress.fr/creation-entreprise/idees-business/lafuma-fait-le-pari-du-tout-terrain_1521806.html
- ^ French outdoor boots; founded in 1927, belonged to Lafuma from 1995–2012
- ↑ Big Pack: founded in 1976 by Knut Jaeger, mining engineer, based in Bissingen , owned by Lafuma 2002-2010.
- ↑ http://www.lesechos.fr/01/09/2010/LesEchos/20753-045-ECH_lafuma-ou-la-course-de-fond-d-un-poids-moyen.htm
- ↑ Short report: https://www.spomo.de/branche/unternehmen/05-10-2011-lafuma-organisiert-putzaktion-auf-dem-mont-blanc/