“We are bona fide industrialists, not mere moneymakers”
04/03/2020Created in 1966 by Jean Desjoyaux, the family-owned company based in La Fouillouse in the Loire region is now the world’s leading exclusive network for the construction of inground swimming pools. In 2019, the Desjoyaux group, which has 7 subsidiaries around the world, 163 sales outlets in France and export sales in 80 countries, achieved a historic turnover of €103 million.
Can you give us a few facts and figures concerning the Desjoyaux company?
We are a family business in the Loire Valley with 240 employees. Our products are manufactured at our site in La Fouillouse. We also have 7 subsidiaries worldwide and export to 80 countries, including recently to Costa Rica, Syria, Hungary, Israel and Georgia. We currently have 163 sales outlets in France and keep opening new ones every year. In terms of results, we achieved a historic turnover in 2019, reaching €103 million with a consolidated net result of €9.7 million after tax. Over the first three months of the new financial year, the group achieved just over 10% growth in France and in exports.
What is behind the success of the Desjoyaux Group?
Our success is based on three main factors. Firstly, increasingly favourable weather conditions in recent years, with very fine summers. Secondly, the fact that families are increasingly focusing on home comforts and choosing to create a new living space out of doors. Swimming pools are no longer seen as an elitist product and are gradually becoming a consumer good in the same sense as an open fireplace or an extra car. Finally, our know-how is based on a very powerful local network in France. We are very close to our end customers, giving them quality products (pools, equipment and accessories) and our R & D work allows us to launch three or four innovative new products on the market every year. In addition, all our products are designed for export, which currently represents 35% of our turnover, and is expected to reach 40% this year. Our objective for 2023-2024 is to achieve 50% of our turnover in France and 50% abroad.
What are the company’s values?
Our family business is deeply rooted in the Loire and attached to this region. Even though the Desjoyaux family runs the group, we have, in addition to our customers, 5,000 employees around the world who trust us. As far as we are concerned, the Desjoyaux family therefore also includes our French network, our international network and our subsidiaries. We are one big family. We are bona fide industrialists, not mere moneymakers. As entrepreneurs, we are building for the future and will soon be passing the group on to the fourth generation. Family is at the heart of our DNA.
What are your plans for 2020?
This year we will be creating even more new jobs at our La Fouillouse industrial site. And between now and 2021, we are going to invest some 15 million euros, namely to buy five injection moulding machines, and extend buildings.
What are your ties with the French ASSE football club in Saint-Étienne?
My ties with the ASSE go back a long way. I have always been a strong supporter of the Greens. In my office, I have a photograph taken in 1963 (I was 10 years old at the time) of me and Jean Snella and Rachid Mekhloufi, who was team captain at the time. I myself played with the ASSE as a child. I’m still a big Greens fan and I regularly attend matches. We are proud that the Desjoyaux Group has been sponsoring the team for the past 15 years.
Article published in L’ESSOR LOIRE on 21/02/2020.