The French company Rabourdin (Bussy-Saint-George, F-77607 Marne-La-Vallee Cedex 3) has set up spacious production and warehouse facilities and a modern office tract on a greenfield site in the Marne valley to the East of Paris. At the end of May, a group of German journalists had the opportunity to visit the company, which is largely unknown on this side of the Rhine. Rabourdin is a familiar name in the plastics sector in France, as the market leader for standard punch and mould components. The company was founded in 1926 as a precision mechanics workshop. Jean-Louis Rabourdin, the current company manager and proprietor, explained to guests that while components for mould and tool construction still remain the company´s core business, the range of products sold was extended in 1985 with the acquisition of the French companies, Esfom and Seves, which now go under the name of Rabourdin Picardie (B.P. 157, F-60131 St-Just-en-Chaussee).

Together with the original company, which has been renamed Rabourdin Industrie, these companies now form the Rabourdin Group. With its current payroll of 350 in three plants, the company claims to be the “undisputed leader” in its original field of production (holding a 70% market share in France, according to the company itself). While Rabourdin Picardie supplies standard moulds, moulds made to drawings, machined blocks and panels, standard components for punching tools, die sets and hot runner systems, the plant in Bussy-Saint-George specialises inter alia in standardised mould components. These include ejector pins, springs, guide elements and heating cartridges.

To get “a foot in the door” on the German and Eastern European markets too, the French company has acquired a 49% holding in the German standardised mould component producer, Strack-Norma GmbH (Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 109/111, D-42117 Wuppertal). Strack-Norma produces standard platens for standardised mould components and also standard punch components in Lüdenscheid and elsewhere. A Southern German branch in Villingen-Schwenningen is responsible for special tasks, including for slide and cassette moulds.

Company manager Rabourdin is convinced that this combination of two product programmes gives his company “a unique supply range within Europe”. This also means that, for the very first time, standardised components to the ANFOR, ISO and DIN standards are available around the globe from one and the same supplier.

In 1997, the Rabourdin Group achieved sales of FRF 220m (approx. DEM 77m). The German Strack Group, with a payroll of some 250, attained sales of about DEM 57m over this same period.

READER SERVICE: Company portrait brochure “Rabourdin / Strack – Jointly into the Future” (German): PIE-No. 42709.