The specialist in wooden housing, heir to the Tomi boxes, realizes its renewal in brand new premises in the Roland-Hoareau activity zone in Pierrefonds. Implementing an ambitious and responsible vision of the company, its president and CEO, Morgane Osta Friend, chooses a production tool that will not generate any waste, sized for the local market and for export.
Meeting Leader : What does this new installation bring to you? ?
Morgane Osta Friend : With this new installation, we will be able to develop the industrialization of our production in suitable premises. The former owner, the Le Villain group, had outsourced manufacturing to Malaysia, and only the final assembly took place in Reunion. When I bought the brand and the construction system in 2018, I decided to bring manufacturing back locally and industrialize it to be able to develop it. The idea was to benefit from the advantages of short circuits and local skills to carry out new projects. I want to promote this factory in Reunion, but also for export. Our future lies in exports. I would like Bourbon Bois to become a franchise in the Indian Ocean. In partnership with Mahorean and Parisian architects, we are carrying out a first project in Mayotte, where we will send wooden structures which will be assembled on site by local craftsmen. Finally, thanks to this new installation, we can develop additional and related activities. for example, I am setting up a small professional training school intended to meet our internal needs : Themis school 2.0. We provide two initial training courses in the assembly of wooden systems and the assembly of metal structures. With these training, We are facing the labor shortage and the lack of training adapted to our professions ourselves..
You will increase your production capacities and develop new housing products ?
Absolutely. We changed our productive system, and new patents have been filed. We now manufacture products for home cladding, that we bought until then. But things will especially change from mid-January with the entry into service of a new dust extraction system which will allow us to use our machining center at full capacity.. Thanks to this equipment, we are going to multiply our production by five.
Your factory will not generate any production waste. How do you achieve this result? ?
Our production waste consists of sawdust and wood scraps. Our sawdust will be collected for two uses. On the one hand in bedding for horses. On the other hand to create new construction equipment for which the patent filing is in progress. This material from our production waste will allow us to design new products, I can't say more at the moment. With our scraps of wood, we make small decorative objects, small furniture, small shelves, etc. They will be offered in a sales area which will open at the start of the year. We will thus no longer have any loss of wood..
You defend a productive corporate ethic. What does a responsible company mean to you? ?
The two essential points, these are attention to waste and attention to staff. By making positive value out of what was previously considered waste, we place ourselves in a logic of circular economy. By paying attention to training and supporting people, we are in a logic of solidarity economy. What is a necessity for the company is an asset for young people, who will learn a trade and acquire skills, especially teamwork.
After taking over certain assets of Bourbon Bois, you retained jobs and renewed the customer relationship taking into account what the customer can do themselves. Where are you with this approach? ?
We sometimes only supply the wooden structure of the home to artisan customers who carry out all the interior design.. For individuals, we will offer the first online self-construction courses at the beginning of next year. They will wear, to start, on little things : shelters, pergolas, etc. This new Bourbon Bois activity is made possible thanks to our new premises. Allowing minor works not subject to ten-year insurance to be carried out by people themselves seems to me a solution to contain prices in an economic context which will get tougher in 2023. I even think it's the future of home improvement. I would like to develop this possibility through online training.
Bourbon Bois was a moribund company when you revived its activity, four years ago. How do you explain such rapid success? ?
I started from scratch. By modernizing the construction system, I was able to offer more varied and better quality houses than the old Bourbon Bois houses. Roof heights have been increased. The energy performance of the home has been improved, while the old houses of Bourbon Bois were not insulated. We started with new materials, new manufacturing processes. To let it be known, I communicated a lot. I made a lot of videos on Facebook at a time when personal branding was not known in Reunion. My communication has a lot of impact.
How is the company doing at the end of 2022 with inflation in production costs and supply problems? ?
Building material costs are exploding ! It will still take time before production in Europe returns to normal rhythm and conditions.. It's difficult, but we hold. Globally, I would say that we have rebalanced our activity between social housing, where prices remained capped, and the private sector.
On an investment of three million euros, your project has benefited from aid of 800 000 euros from the France Relance program. Could you have carried it out without France Relance? ?
Non. Not the same way and not as good. I would have only built a basic building which would not have allowed me to do everything I will be able to do now to develop the business.
A NEW PAGE IN THE HISTORY OF BOURBON BOIS
Inventor of the famous Tomi boxes, old symbol of Reunion social housing, Maurice Tomi founded Bourbon Bois in 1961. In 1989, the company is bought by the Guadeloupean group Le Villain. This justifies the closure of Bourbon Bois in 2018 by the reform of the APL “Access to housing” allowing low-income households to access property.. Former real estate value expert, Morgane Osta Amigo launches into entrepreneurship by purchasing the brands and patents of Bourbon Bois to relaunch the activity established at the Port. Four years later, Bourbon Wood Experience, his new name, has 17 employees and has built, in Pierrefonds, a new 5,000 m2 site bringing together its production tools, its offices and a multipurpose space both showroom, training location and shop.
Olivier Soufflet
