Don't expect to find a Factory 4.0 model at Gayet. Here, no sanitized rooms, no robots that would replace humans, no open space either. In the buildings of Tinqueux (Marne), which smell of the Thirty Glorious Years, we move from office to personalized office, we pass through workshops that work metal with meticulousness before passing through the impressive stock of scaffolding behind which hides a battery of 120 vans marked with the unchanging light green and black colors that signify the company. These vehicles are ready to leave to deliver ventilation ducts to customers. They are also historical markers of its activity, the origins of which date back to 1911, on the initiative of the plumber-zincworker Fernand Gayet, great-grandfather of Philippe and Pascal, the current management duo.
However, if you are looking beyond the facades for the example of an agile SME, capable of modernizing, renewing and growing without losing its family identity, you have come to the right door. The integrated design office of 16 people, the specific software package (ERP) developed by the company, its involvement in the technical assessments of experimentation (Atex) – four in progress, in the treatment of facades – embody the spirit of innovation of Gayet. As for the renewal, it has been incessant. For more than a hundred years, over generations, the company has worked to expand the range of its businesses, through a dual movement of internal development and external growth.
Zero subcontracting. Within SA Gayet itself, the roofing, introduced shortly after the creation of the company, was joined by waterproofing, cladding and external insulation, so that this whole “building envelope” now represents a little more than half of the turnover, therefore more than the technical trades made up of climate engineering, plumbing, their maintenance and electricity. These accounted for 35% of the total last year, the balance coming from the scaffolding assembly rental service, introduced in 2017. Subcontracting is a practice quite simply ignored by the company, which reports a share of… 0% each year since 2019. By type of work, renovation clearly dominates, it represents 80% of the total on average over the last three years. It is deployed in particular with local landlords, whose share of customers approaches 25%, not far from other public markets (30% in 2023) and ahead of the tertiary sector and the essential Champagne houses, which Gayet did not miss to convince of its know-how.
At the same time, the SME has accumulated around ten acquisitions in four decades – in its own and related businesses -, from Quénot (exterior joinery in PVC and aluminum) in 1986, to Lamblin (renovation and insulation of facades) this year. Enough to give birth to a group with a combined workforce of 450 employees for a turnover of €46 million last year. “All these acquisitions make sense. They complement our profession in a coherent way. But their primary objective is to consolidate the regional fabric: they took place within the Reims basin where we operate, the most distant being Lamblin, near Troyes. [dans l’Aube, à 130 km au sud, NDLR]still in Champagne-Ardenne, describes Philippe Gayet, president. It’s an entire ecosystem that we are helping to flourish… without being obsessed with external growth. The selling managers come to us, knowing our reputation, that of a serious company which does not destroy the DNA of their business, but cultivates it. » The staff who have joined the Gayet galaxy are not complaining about it either. The human “resource” is understood here in a positive sense, that of a precious good, to be made profitable. By guaranteeing its future, firstly, when training courses are lacking. For example, the family SME was at the origin, in 2021, of a refrigeration engineer course which will have been followed by 8 to 10 young people for three years, “for our needs – we hired three last year – and those of our colleagues,” notes Pascal Gayet, the president, co-director with Philippe. This return to school is marked by the absence of new promotions, primarily due to the fact, according to the company, that it has now been able to recruit a sufficient number of the skills it needs in this profession.
Generous interest. Furthermore, Gayet takes care to show newcomers that they are part of a big family. For example, its president devotes the morning of the first working day in September to apprentices when they join the SME. At the moment, there are 18 of them, or 10% of the workforce.
Current employees are not forgotten on this subject: a quarter of them have followed training in the last two years. In addition, many financial advantages are granted to them: 13th month, allocation of 30% of profits to profit-sharing, payment of various bonuses – for example productivity but calculated in a general way so as not to overly push individual performance. The contribution to the mutual health insurance set up is 92% covered by the employer. Situated below the obligation threshold, the company has nevertheless set up a health-safety-working conditions commission (CSSCT) which meets quarterly and is hailed as “very active” by the OPPBTP. Two full-time prevention officers ensure that occupational health and safety standards are maintained at a high level.
This successful collective adventure is about to reach a new milestone. Philippe and Pascal Gayet and their sister Catherine Manciaux, in charge of the company's finances, gradually hand over the reins to their five children and Sophie Gonthiez, their younger sister. A sextet must therefore be responsible for continuing to write a score full of harmony.
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