International business now accounts for 14.2% of the Group’s turnover. From the end of the 1960s through to the middle of the 2000s, the group’s subsidiaries bought in Europe to sell in France. Today, they buy throughout the world to sell in Europe and Africa via our subsidiaries Syveco, Sodeco Valves, FGinox and Edouard Rousseau. Syveco, set up in 2006, contributed 42.8% of our international turnover in 2021. Sodeco Valves, FGinox and Edouard Rousseau accounted for 49.7% of this business, the remainder coming from our other subsidiaries.
Syveco delivers wide ranges of products perfectly suited to market needs to wholesalers from our main stock in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier and to short deadlines. Progress with logistics and shortening in delivery times have simply pushed back our borders, since we are now able to deliver the whole of Europe in 2-6 days.
For our African customers, orders are submitted in full and immediately to forwarding agents who ship the merchandise in two or three weeks to the markets concerned. Sodeco Valves, whose head office is in Belgium, delivers in 24-48 hours to its industrial customers, mainly in Belgium, Holland, Germany and Switzerland (there is a commercial branch in each country, with local sales staff). FGinox has an export department and sells its ranges of stainless steel connectors to industrial customers and specialised wholesalers in Europe and Africa.
Ets Edouard Rousseau has a sales subsidiary in Spain which stocks and distributes tap ranges for DIY superstores in that country. Our future potential growth margin is immense, judging by the current and future needs of high-developmentpotential countries and commercial synergies that are gradually emerging between the different subsidiaries concerned.