2024 Olympics: A small company from South Gironde will equip the athletes’ village

“From the moment Paris was selected for the 2024 Olympic Games, it was necessary that Teqoya is part of the infrastructure,” concedes the manager of this company hidden near the town of Villandraut (Gironde), near the health center. Teqoya is a company that creates, from A to Z, different models of air purifiers. Small, medium, large, to install at home or in your car…with different designs, connected or not.

And above all, “maintenance-free, with very low energy consumption, without disposable filter. You just need a small brush to clean your purifier,” boasts the manager.

Local production

The SME advocates respect for the environment and local products. All production up to marketing is based around Villandraut, “less than 500 kilometers away”, specifies the boss. Pierre Guitton, because certain more advanced parts must be manufactured by subcontractors. While its market is developing 90% in Asia, “where there is particular attention to air quality”, the manager fought for five years to be part of the Olympics.

We will equip around 1,500 rooms in the athletes’ village on Saint-Denis Island

“We had to interest them in the project, it was complicated to put together,” he says. We are used to working in China, Korea, Malaysia, and even soon in Australia. Thanks to the fact that we had equipped a crèche in the community of municipalities where the Olympic village is located, they already knew our brand. »

And the nursery test bore fruit. “We will equip approximately 1,500 rooms in the athletes’ village on Saint-Denis Island with our ventilation filters. It’s a Source of pride. » While the small Villandraut factory is taking off on the Chinese market, what is the situation in France? “These are our premises. We are owners. The employees are from here. Everything starts from Villandraut. We still have 50% capacity if we want to increase our surface area. If we have to grow, we will stay in the Langon area. We will try to work with communities, businesses, sports clubs… We have already equipped professional hockey clubs,” continues Pierre. Since its launch, 400,000 products have been sold worldwide.

A 100% southern Gironde story

For the record, basically, it was not Pierre Guitton who was at the origin of Teqoya. It is the idea of ​​a “brilliant engineer” from Villandraut and a university professor from Bordeaux. At the time, the two men sold around ten purifiers per year, thanks to word of mouth. Until this technology arrived at Pierre Guitton.

” To tell you all, it’s my daughter who started Teqoya. We lived in Paris and she was having bad asthma attacks, impossible to calm down. Someone advised me to buy an air purifier. It had a spectacular effect on her. A few years later, my wife said to me “why aren’t you interested in this technology. When there are pollution peaks in Paris, it can help people,” and I started like that. ” From one thing to another, Pierre Guitton takes over the project and joins forces with a Franco-Chinese “because, in France, the market for purifiers did not yet exist”. Bingo.

Today, around fifteen people work alongside him to develop, create and market their products. The start of a great “success story” for a small South Gironde company.

Website: https://www.teqoya.fr/.

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