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What are the two words that best represent Tournaire?
The two words that come spontaneously to my mind are ‘boldness’ and ‘innovation’
In what respect is Tournaire a ‘bold’ company?
Tournaire has been a family company ever since it was founded in 1833. It still is today, but at the same time it can intervene on behalf of clients all over the world, since 2/3 of our annual sales (in all, 56 million euros in 2014) were to international clients established in more than 70 countries in the six continents. Our boldness lies in our ability to get the best of both worlds: as a family company we can make strategic choices in a self-sufficient and totally independent way, but we also have the will to go beyond the geographical boundaries of our origins and set out, without reservations, to conquer international markets
I believe our boldness is also visible in our ability to take a fresh look at ourselves, and in our desire to continue to expand the limits of our expertise despite our two hundred years of history: this has happened several times in the life of the company: in 1930, when Tournaire first made estagnons (containers) in one-piece aluminium; in 1950 when we expanded into the pharmaceutical and agrochemical markets; in 1961 with the design of the first floating-filter extractor in response to the needs of our client Tombarel, a perfume producer in Grasse… Finally, in order to better meet the needs of a constantly changing market we have, over the last few months, been performing an audit of our Equipment Division that has led to a total rethink of our development strategy for this line of business with a budget of more than 3 million euros. (Maggy, lien vers interview récente de F Bardini). From today this Division will be more than ever a pro-active player in its market, on the alert, attentive to the new trends and ceaseless changes so as to be a dynamic, adaptable and efficient partner.
Another example of boldness comes to my mind: this is the ambitious plan we have set up over the last few years to manage effectively the skills and know-how of our employees. On one hand we have Tournaire’s own in-house academy, founded in 2009: its aim is to pass on know-how, promote employee development, provide access to the various levels of professional qualification and protect jobs. Beyond this, the ambition of this structure is to adapt jobs to the new economic and industrial situation. In this respect our company with its payroll of 250 is every bit as good as much larger groups which generally have much greater resources available. (lien vers http://www.tournaire.fr/le-groupe/developpement-durable/gestion-des-competences-des-emplois-et-des-savoirs/ ) For in Tournaire we have always believed that the true value of a company lies in the men and women of talent working for it. We therefore attach enormous importance to the selection and recruitment of candidates, their training, their career development and the quality of their lifestyle with us, since contented employees are an essential foundation on which to build customer satisfaction and loyalty.
And what about innovation? In what ways is Tournaire innovative?
Our pioneering spirit and capacity for innovation are inseparable from the name of Tournaire; they are essential for a company like ours, they are part of our culture and have been built into our DNA generation after generation. To move on from our historic market with the perfume producers in Grasse to working for other sectors like food production, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, agriculture or animal health, we had to think, innovate, move forward, unceasingly test and refine our equipment; similarly to diversify from equipment to packaging we started from our existing knowledge and expertise and tested numerous materials, assessing their respective qualities, before choosing 99.5 per cent pure aluminum or co-extruded plastic for our packaging. Today Tournaire offers the widest range of technical packaging on the market, enabling us to respond to all demands, however complex they may be.
In this field of R&D and innovation, the goals for our teams are clearly identified: for the Equipment Division the aim is to contribute to the implementation of the most innovative solutions in the fields of extraction, distillation and rectification, in full compliance with the ever-changing regulatory constraints. Our Equipment Division is constantly adapting its offering to follow the changing environments and industrial constraints of our clients so as to be closer to their everyday needs; the future of this Division also depends on the intensification of processes through technical and industrial partnerships so as to develop new innovations precisely adapted to its clients’ needs. For the Packaging Division the goal is the continuing improvement of the robustness, lightness, ergonomics and recyclability of our technical packaging, the improvement of the barrier function of the packaging, taking into account, when necessary, the presence of a complex environment (lien vers : http://www.tournaire.fr/le-groupe/recherche-developpement/), the specification and improvement of cleanliness, and the design of closure systems that are still better and easier to use for our clients.
During our history we have taken out many industrial patents to protect our inventions, which have become benchmarks in our markets. To mention just a few: the first System Plus® tamper-proof screw-cap designed by Jean Tournaire in 1978; in 1996, a patent for the first compact condensation, decantation and storage column for the pharmaceutical sector; in 2005 a patent for the GPI seal; in 2010 a patent for the granule dispensing cap, etc.
One last example of our capacity for innovation: in 2014, Tournaire became one of the first companies in Grasse to be strongly present on web 2.0 and take advantage of all its functions: a completely revamped web site (www.tournaire.fr), now available in 3 languages (French, English, Spanish), the professional ‘Process & Materials’ blog, on which you are reading this article, the creation of a powerful digital ecosystem with interconnections between the web site, the blog and all the accounts and pages on the social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Viadeo, Youtube and Google+. Our employees have also been made fully aware of this significant digital evolution. Thus Tournaire’s digital transformation is shared and fostered by all employees who so desire.
Thanks to these two strong values, boldness and innovation, we are today seen as a professional benchmark, expert and attentive to our clients. Their satisfaction rate is 97%,, a testimony to their loyalty to Tournaire and our long-lasting commercial relationship.
When was Tournaire’s Packaging Division set up? Was it in response to client demand or was it on Tournaire’s own initiative?
The Tournaire company was founded o 2 centuries ago, and originally produced equipment for perfume producers in Grasse. Very early on Tournaire began to manufacture copper cans – then known locally as ‘estagnons’ – for its clients in the perfume industry, because they needed protective packaging for their production of essential oils and concretes. It was only much later, for reasons of company organization, that the Packaging Division was officially created, in 1955, at the same time as the Equipment Division. The roots of our expertise in the development and manufacture of technical packaging thus go back to the 19th century.
In the early days Tournaire produced copper ‘estagnons’, and then the company progressively introduced more modern materials that were stronger and lighter, such as aluminium in the 1930s and multi-layer plastics in the 1980s, in response to the ever-more-precise demands of clients in the perfume sector, and also in pharmaceuticals, sensitive food ingredients, plant health, fine chemicals, etc.
You claim to offer the most complete range on the market; what do you mean by that?
It’s true! Not only does Tournaire offer the widest range on the market, but also the fullest:
‘the widest’ – with more than a score of families of technical packaging – enabling us to cover a host of market applications while offering the highest levels of quality, service and safety.
‘the fullest’ – with the greatest range of capacities, from the smallest at 15 ml up to the largest, 60 litres. Tournaire is today the only company in the world in this market that has integrated a number of technologies, from extrusion for small containers to stamping for the largest; in addition we are the only people with expertise right along the chain, from the concept and design of technical packaging through to its sale; within each range we offer a wide selection of packaging, as with ‘System plus’ for example, where we propose some thirty articles to respond precisely to every need.
Today it’s not very difficult to manufacture packaging, you must have a lot of competitors!
Don’t you believe it! Our technical packaging offers such remarkable characteristics in terms of technical performance, strength, stability over time and preservation of the intrinsic quality of the substances contained, that it’s not just anybody who can design and manufacture equivalent products! When you add the fact that our containers benefit from all the applicable standards and regulations in the sectors concerned and are manufactured with full respect for the environment, you can understand why Tournaire has always remained market leader.
What gives your containers the edge in terms of quality?
In my view, the superiority Tournaire’s technical packaging depends on three factors:
- Technical expertise: for over a century now, Tournaire has constantly innovated so as to offer its clients leading-edge technical packaging. When our teams develop a product – can, box, flask – they seek first of all to understand the client’s needs as precisely as possible, even though these may not always be clearly expressed. Our team will therefore work with the client to draw up functional specifications for packaging in aluminium or co-extruded plastic; a prototype will be produced and then tested according to several criteria such as leaktightness, cleanliness, ease of handling and cleaning, etc. Only then, once all the tests have been passed, do we move on to the stage of series production.
- Industrial process control: we are today the only company offering total traceability, from the raw materials coming from our suppliers through to the finished products shipped to clients, with a battery of tests and quality controls all along the chain.
- Finally, our market coverage: the fact that we understand our clients’ business so well is due largely to our international network, since we are present in some sixty countries. So there’s virtually no problem we haven’t already encountered somewhere!
Is there a sector that is particularly important for you?
We are present in all the sectors and lines of business that require packaging of the highest quality and with the best technical characteristics: cosmetics and well-being, chemistry, food processing, etc. One underlying trend can however be noted: this is the regular development of the health sector, both for humans and animals. This has recently become Tournaire’s leading outlet, even overtaking our traditional favourite, which is still the perfume industry.
Beyond the production of containers, what services does Tournaire’s Equipment Division offer?
We have a very experienced team for the development and perfection of our products, ten people or so who work unceasingly not only on current products but also on new products and manufacturing processes. For Tournaire improving the performance of our technical packaging is a constant preoccupation. So we are happy to offer our clients real support during these developments.
In addition, to transport our packaging in the best possible conditions of cost and safety, we can propose a large number of solutions corresponding to the logistic resources, destinations and specific needs of our clients.
Furthermore, thanks to our international network, we can strengthen our relationship with the client through the physical presence of salespeople and stocks on several continents.
