Doors open this Friday, October 4, 2024, at SO BAG: a real success in terms of attendance and interest for visitors, around a hundred just for the morning.
In fact, the hundred visitors in groups of 8 will carry out a visit with a company manager as their guide. For the group that we will call Montceau News, it is the quality manager himself who will guide us. A very enriching, pleasant visit, at the heart of the activity of staff with great know-how, even multi-skills because some are trained in several positions and several techniques. Moreover, the staff works on a position for a certain time, then changes activity for another sequence. Above each of the 4 production lines a large screen allows operators to know where they are with the number of parts manufactured in relation to orders, this gives them peace of mind and flexibility in execution because here no imposed cadences.
All the harnessed visitors, wearing red caps, their beards buried in a mask, listen, question, are surprised and share the same feeling of respect in the face of the mastery of the operators who assemble large bags by sewing elements rigid, unwieldy with astonishing dexterity and safety. After the visit, the guide presents another aspect of SO BAG governance, a permaculture greenhouse in which ESAT staff grow vegetables with free access for SO BAG employees. Our guide tells us that there will also be hives soon, he and 3 of his colleagues are training in beekeeping.
To meet its Responsible and Citizen commitments, SO BAG acquired 5.5 hectares of land from Ms. Niguet who is visiting today in the Montceau News group.
End of the visit, meeting with Nicolas CHEVALIER, the boss, who goes out of his way during a snack to welcome all visitors and answer all questions. Participants all received a ticket upon entering which entitles them to a gift after drawing the raffle. Medef has also set up a photo competition for these 2024 Economic Heritage Days: competition for the most fun photo taken at SO BAG. Price for the best photo: €150. To really finish, we scan a QR code to answer a satisfaction questionnaire. Everyone present can purchase Big Bags or pink October baskets. Everyone can come every day to buy directly from the factory or from big bags in stock in the SO BAG France online store.
SO BAG is a company created in 2012 by Nicolas CHEVALIER, first with a few employees in a poorly adapted warehouse, then in the premises where it is still located today. 30 employees including 20 in production who come from Creusot, Blanzy and Montceau. Located in the packaging sector, SO BAG manufactures large capacity flexible containers such as big bags. There are 2 Big Bag manufacturers in France and both are in the mining area.
These large standard flexible bulk containers, with or without filling neck, have various uses in building, construction sites, materials, waste; in agriculture, seeds and cereals, animal feed; in the plastics industry, plastic granules, recycling; in helicopter lifting, in marine anti-submersion technique (as in Biarritz or even in the USA), in protective gabions for the army, in waste bins for the city of Paris, in canvas big bags 100 % recycled for Michelin.
The company has very specialized expertise developed by it or in partnership and having given rise to specific patents.
Its areas of expertise concern, for example, the use of modified atmospheres allowing, among other things, to extend the shelf life of grains, seeds, seeds, by combining extremely low levels of oxygen with nitrogen or carbon dioxide. carbon.
SO BAG also manufactures tailor-made big bags for the pharmaceutical industry: capsules, tablets, active ingredients, medicines in large quantities or for the food industry.
These big bags and their manufacturing comply with the current EU and US pharmacopoeia standards and comply with the ICH Q3D directive. In addition, the company is ISO 9001 and FSSC 22000 certified (Food Safety System Certification / food safety).
In addition, the company, by applying all the standards in force, works hand in hand with occupational medicine and an ergonomist to constantly adapt workstations and gestures and posture.
Alongside this core business, SO BAG works on a contract basis for customers to meet their cutting needs for flexible materials, films, fabrics and technical textiles. The company develops innovative solutions to meet the needs of businesses by designing specific packaging solutions. Going further, she offers her help to emerging businesses around projects, such as the manufacture of Norwegian casseroles or the production of clothes for a casting of kids. Better during the Covid 19 crisis, SO BAG provided customers with the cutting of clothes and masks from hemp canvas.
For philistines like us, the Norwegian casserole dish is a device for cooking food without an additional source of energy. We cook a dish on the flame initially then we put it in the casserole or Norwegian pot so that it simmers. The system is simple, a tinned wrought iron casserole in a hermetically sealed box and surrounded by highly insulating materials such as cork, wool, hay, felt, a blanket, etc. This saves at least 50% of the energy normally used for cooking.
The company always acts, in this case as in others, in such a way as to reduce the environmental impact induced by the packaging, its origin, its design and its use.
Because SO BAG is a Responsible and civic-minded company, committed, through its corporate culture, to a Corporate Social Responsibility approach with its employees and with its partners. It bases its approach around CSR criteria from the international standard ISO 26000 as well as the Sustainable Development Goals adopted at the UN. Moreover, since 2019, SO BAG has been an ambassador for the French Global Compact network for the Burgundy Franche-Comté region. In the DNA of SO BAG we found “ eco-design, waste recycling, optimization of the carbon footprint induced by transport, energy transition, prevention of occupational risks, inclusion of disabled workers (12.4% of the number of employees) , employee well-being, biodiversity »
The company promised that it would open its doors for an exceptional day and a unique opportunity to discover behind the scenes of its production: promise kept
Gilles Desnoix
