Do you remember your first day at the head of the Montluçon plant ?? Vaguely. The first people I found in the canteen were Michel Faye and Norbert Palisson who were the CE leaders at the time. They knew me because I had already worked in the factory. I spent a little time with the former manager, Mr. Mathieu and got down to work.
Who appointed you to this post ?? It was Claude Cham who was then president of Dunlop-France. He offered me this job, I had no reason to refuse, knowing that Montluçon was a big factory at the time. There must have been around 1,300 people.
Was it easy to move from the Tergnier factory in the Aisne to the Montluçon one ?? For me, it was still management even if at Tergnier, which was a subsidiary of Dunlop, there was in addition to production, finance and purchasing. In Montluçon, I ran a production unit.
“An old factory with unsuitable buildings”
How was the factory when you arrived ?? It worked well. The only problem with Montluçon is that it was an old factory with buildings that were not very suitable. One hundred years ago, Dunlop took over this old shell loading site with buildings separated from each other. It was not ideal in terms of production flow. It had to be done with.
What was the Montluçon plant producing in the early 1990s? We were still doing a lot of things. Tennis balls, van, motorcycle, truck, airplane, agrarian and civil engineering tires. Tourism had already started in Amiens. Heavyweight was very important back then. We were still making inner tubes. The decision of the shareholders was at this time to close the workshop because it was becoming obsolete, the tires being tubeless.
When José Matéos recruited comrades of the Communist Party in the company
Dunlop was taken over by Sumitomo in 1984. Were the Japanese very present in the factory? We had a few Japanese colleagues who were in the factory all the time. They were also present at the head office and we had regular visits from production managers who came from Japan. And I myself have been to Japan very often. I have fond memories of our relations. They were very interesting people to work with who taught us a lot of things because they were ahead of us in terms of productivity. Their management was not hard but we still had to have the results, which is quite normal. The Japanese had a fairly friendly way of talking and getting along.
“The factory managers had a certain independence”
Did you have independence in your decision making? At that time, the factory managers had a certain independence. There are quite a few decisions that I could make on my own, that wouldn’t be the case today. At the end of my career, when I was industrial director for the whole of Europe, it was already more complicated. That said, if it was necessary to invest fifty million, it was referred to the hierarchy. There were still limits (laughs).
At the time of Jacques Parfait, tennis balls were still being made in Montluçon.
During these three years in Montluçon, did you know any social movements ?? Yes and there were some in Montluçon. We have had a number of strikes but it has never been very bad. The really big move, but it wasn’t specific to Dunlop, it was in 1995 when there was the big strike against pension reform. They had blocked the factory, it was a terrible mess.
How were relations with the unions, especially the CGT ?? We had a conflict with certain union leaders but that did not prevent us from discussing with them even if we did not agree. We cannot say that relations were strained with the CGT. We didn’t agree and we knew it, but we could talk to each other. They were people we could talk to. This is not the case everywhere.
“In my career, I have changed jobs every three to four years”
What are the reasons for your departure in 1995? The boss offered me to take on the industrial management of Dunlop-France. I only did three years as a director at Montluçon. It’s not a lot, but it takes that to do something. Afterwards, it’s good to change too. In my career, I have changed jobs every three to four years.
What are you most proud of as the manager of Dunlop Montluçon? I’m quite happy to have improved the productivity of the motorcycle and truck workshop. We did great things at that time with the team.
If we had to redo it?? I don’t know, it depends on the circumstances. A priori, I absolutely do not regret. When Sumitomo took over Dunlop with major layoffs, it wasn’t clear what would become of us. At that time, I was approached by other companies. I asked myself the question and decided to stay in the boat.
Interview by Fabrice Redon
Bio express.
Born on June 29, 1942 in the Cher, Jacques Parfait spent his entire career at Dunlop. In 1973, he joined the Montluçon plant where he held a technical position in the development of mixtures. Then, he moved on to the development sector (tire tests and measurements) before integrating tourism development.
In the early 1980s, he led the tennis, motorcycle and inner tube workshop group before moving to the pneumatic sector. In 1988, he took over the management of the Tergnier plant in Aisne. He returned to Montluçon as plant manager between 1992 and 1995, then took over the industrial management of Dunlop-France until 1999.
With the takeover of Dunlop by Goodyear, Jacques Parfait was entrusted with industrial management for all of Europe, a position he held until his retirement in 2008. He now lives in Domérat where his wife has a family home.
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