” We will turn off the light, it is not about consuming Russian gas “launches Stephane Hamelin returning to his office this September morning. And then any economy is good to take. ” Between July 2021 and March 2022, the cost of our raw material, paper, doubled, not to mention the electricity bill … complains the chairman of the Hamelin supervisory board. Of course, in the shops, the waltz of labels – between 20 and 30% increase in notebooks – has helped to soften the shock a bit. But it is difficult to go further.
Fortunately, this more than a century old Norman SME has seen others. The end of accounting books at the turn of the 1960s, the death of the typewriter (and its refills of paper) with the arrival of the computer in the 1980s, the gradual disappearance of envelopes, notebooks, desks and other binders in lever of the 2000s in the wake of the Internet … So many shocks that, each time, threatened the heart of his business: the chancellery.
No. 2 on the French market
Yet, with 400 million euros in turnover in 2022, the group that remained 100% family-owned is now number 2 in France – behind the Lorraine group Exacompta Clairefontaine led by the Nusse family – but dominates the market Europe, with a strong presence particularly in the UK. If profitability remains confidential, it would be, from a banking source, one of the best in the industry.
Stéphane Hamelin can thank his father Robert. When the latter took over in 1936, thecompany founded in 1864 in Caen by his ancestor Ernest mainly produces accounting books. Things are going well. But after the war the sky darkened. ” The first office machines arrived from the United States, signaling the end of manually compiled trade registers »Says Stéphane Hamelin about the sandwiches he went to buy at the local bakery. Fortunately, the Sixties saw another upheaval, this time in the classrooms: no more blackboard and chalk, space for papers and notebooks.
The Ernest Hamelin workshops in 1899.
Roberto Hamelin sees in it the future of the company that will make a 180 degree turn. ” I must have been 10 and our house was still glued to the factory in the center of Caenrecalls Stephane. One evening, my father woke us up to witness the start-up of our first spiral notebook machine. My parents were super proud, we were fascinated. ” The first brand launched by Hamelin, Conquérant (its headquarters were located on rue Guillaume Le Conquérant), still exists. It is mainly found in primary schools where supplies are purchased and supplied by local communities.
The funny pact that binds the Hamelin family
“None of our eight children will ever have an operational role in the company. “Stéphane Hamelin (61) took this radical decision together with his brother and sister in 2020, when the reins of the group, whose capital remained 100% family, were entrusted to an external manager, Eric Joan. Four of their eight descendants – in their thirties – are still on the supervisory board. ” But because we want to make them engaged and accountable shareholders, they have to spend six to seven days a year meeting the teams, having the detailed strategy, visiting the factories, etc. And they are warned, the company’s interest will always come before theirs. ” If we have to go into debt for an acquisition, no dividends for a few years and that’s it “, Points out Stéphane Hamelin.
–
” With our other brands, including Oxford, number 1 in Europe, and the large retailers we manufacture, over 300 million notebooks depart each year from our five dedicated factoriesdetails Stéphane Hamelin. Yes, did you think that soon our children would no longer write but tap on tablets? Mistake ! “ ” All studies show that writing and taking notes play a vital role in learning and memorization, Finland is also back from digitization “, Points out Eric Joan, who joined the group in 2001 and has been leading it since 2020.
300 million notebooks produced every year, a sector in which the cultural diversity of each country is strong.
Forced modernization
But Robert Hamelin wasn’t the only one betting on school items. When his son Stéphane joined him in 1988, after five years in Jean-Louis Borloo’s office straightening lame ducks, France still had a dozen producers. This is also the time when Carrefour and others begin to internationalize. ” Either we were able to follow them, or we would have been eaten by local competitors., recalls Stéphane Hamelin. Neither one nor two, since the early 1990s, has multiplied his travels to Europe to seek allies there. ” And there, surprised, I discover that we have been good more competitive and imaginative of them. “
Thanks WHO? ” The large distribution, a sadistic but effective coach who forced us to do it forced modernization “Replies the Norman chief in no uncertain terms. Hamelin will then methodically munch most of its European rivals, diversifying into storage items under the Elba brand, purchased in 2000 by the Danish group Bantex. An office activity which still represents 30% of the group’s turnover but which, for once, is inexorably decreasing. Even if some markets, curiously, resist. ” In Germany, companies still classify and archive many paper documents »Observes Eric Joan.
This is truly an area where cultural specificities remain strong. Notebooks. The size of the margins, the spacing of the lines, the color of the pages, the arrangement of the tiles, the stitched, stapled or spiral edges… from Italy to Norway, from Poland to Spain, are all different. ” This is why the Chinese have never attacked this marketexplains Eric Joan during an inspection of the Hérouville-Saint-Clair plant (30,000 m2the largest in the world) which processes 40,000 tons of paper rolls per year. Aside from the fact that they have no forests, therefore no paper, the ranges are too complex and the series too small for them. “
In the Hérouville-Saint-Clair plant, the largest in the world, which processes 40,000 tons of paper rolls per year.
The worst is undoubtedly the alphabetical directories! Those destined for the Polish market include many more pages with the letters j, woz, while for Spain or Italy more pages are needed for vowels. This September morning, the lines run almost in slow motion as the back-to-school season is in full swing. ” Most of the production is between January and June, our distributor customers have been delivered since April “Says Eric Joan. Also, a few buildings ahead, the R&D teams are already working on the next innovations.
About fifty innovations a year
In 2017, Hamelin hit hard with the launch Scribzee, the first mobile app to connect paper and digital media. Thanks to the markers printed on Oxford brand notebooks, blocks, cards, diaries, it allows you to scan, share and save your handwritten notes in a secure cloud, to then consult and review them at any time on your phone. Protected by three patents, Scribzee already has more than 2.6 million users and 17 million scanned pages worldwide. “The world of revision, from secondary to high school, is our main focus“Says Christophe Girard, marketing director of Oxford and Elba.
Eric Joan, with Hamelin since 2001 and appointed head of the group in 2020, the first time for an unfamiliar. Right: in a Hamelin factory in Caen in 2022.
But to identify student needs, nothing beats sifting through social networks. For each identified expectation, Oxford is committed to providing a solution. Do high school students complain of eyestrain when using colored cards? They will find out by going back to school a white version but with a colored banner that allows a classification by subject. Are they tired of piling loose documents in their notebooks with the permanent risk of them falling out? The Easybook range offers 3-in-1 notebooks and agendas with integrated storage pocket and bookmark flap, very useful for quickly finding your latest lesson.
Fans of backpacks, especially Eastpak, solid but without internal storage, university students complain of having to extract documents without seeing much? Oxford has designed a transparent vertical sorter for them, accessible from above without having to remove it from the bag… In total, therefore, about fifty innovations arrive on the shelves every season. And parents are not forgotten! To save them from the task of dealing with textbooks, Oxford has just launched a new service, CoLibri by Oxford. From now on, for € 1.50, it is the bookseller or stationer who takes care of it for them. At the beginning of the school year, over 700 outlets were equipped with this automatic cover, a technology developed by the Italian company CoLibri, acquired by Hamelin in 2021.
As the marketing teams phosphorus, Stéphane Hamelin is learning to slow down. Not easy. ” I’ve worked seven days a week for thirty years, I can’t play golf, and my wife isn’t necessarily happy to have me for lunch every day, but he’s the only boss right now. “Laughs this bon vivant, pointing to Eric Joan to whom he passed the baton two years ago. He has kept an office, but no assistant, and the instructions are clear: ” People come to greet me or chat, never again to fix a file. “In fact…
Express the company biography
1864 Ernest Hamelin opens a laboratory for the production of accounting books in Caen
1960 Anticipating the democratization of paper at school and in the office, Robert Hamelin throws himself into school notebooks and filing items
1988 His son Stéphane Hamelin joins the company at the age of 27
1989 Becomes CEO of the group and continues to take over competitors in Europe
2010 Sale of the envelope business to the Swedish company Bong
2016 Resale of Canson drawing papers to Fila Italiana
2020 Stéphane Hamelin hands over the chairmanship of the board of directors to Eric Joan, who arrived in 2001, and takes over as head of the supervisory board
2022 With a turnover of 400 million euros, Hamelin is the European leader in school and office stationery (Oxford, Conquérant, Elba, etc.)
–
Hamelin in figures
2,300 employees, 10 factories, of which 3 in France, 300 million notebooks and 200 million archives produced every year.
–
–
