Article : La Nouvelle République, 16 January 2001
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The company, specialised in the packaging and assembly of industrial goods, will increase the surface area of its Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre workshop threefold.
In setting up his company in Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre at the beginning of October 1998, Jean-Claude Benéteau was taking a real gamble. His company, of which he was the only employee, was starting out from scratch—he was stepping into the unknown, without a single customer. Driven by an unwavering desire to occupy the both original and booming niche of custom packaging and precision assembly, the young company director took the leap, persevered and his gamble has well and truly paid off. Berry Services, which currently employs twenty people, half of whom on temporary contracts, had a turnover of 2.5 million francs last year, and is soon set to increase the size of its production area threefold! Behind this dramatic expansion is a young industrialist and engineer by training who previously worked for nine years in a packaging factory in Châteauroux. Keen to set up his own business, he found facilities that suited him in Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre—a brand new 500 m² building immediately available on a lease-purchase basis.
Highly varied business activity
Following three months of sales initiatives, during which turnover was only 2,000 francs, business began to take off. To respond to growing demand, Jean-Claude Benéteau took on several employees. “Our initial activity was very varied, as we film wrapped CDs, cassettes and all kinds of small items," explains the director of Berry Services. “We also put tags on a variety of different items and assembled products, such as euro converters, for which we also sometimes carried out the wiring.” As such, the company, which also provides document folding services, performs mainly manual tasks, thanks to its skilled and versatile staff. Able to adapt quickly to the market, the company began working for the textile industry in the summer of 1999. These operations based on quality control, tag insertion, labelling and placing garments on hangers, in addition to ironing and alterations to garments manufactured abroad for department stores in France now represent 75% of the company's turnover. With 35,000 three-part outfits to put together and 100,000 euro converters to assemble in the coming months, Berry Services has a bright future. However, in order to continue to grow and employ thirty members of staff in the medium term, the company will have to expand. The construction of 1,000 m² of additional workspace is set to get under way shortly. A far cry from the days when Jean-Claude Benéteau was struggling to find his first customer!
Jean-Michel Bonnin
