Sodicob acquieres Verso

Sodicob, a long-standing player in the rolling shutter market 

Sodicob, a specialist in the manufacture of rolling shutters, was created in 1989 and directed until 2019 by Jean-Philippe Dujarry. Located in the Toulouse region, Sodicob is a regional market player, achieving about 70% of its sales in the South West of France.

Transferring and growing

In 2003, Orfite organised a first transfer of capital from Sodicob, followed by a second one in 2008. Sixteen years later, in 2019, Jean-Philippe Dujarry, the long-standing company executive, decided to pass on the reins in order to dedicate himself fully to Sodicob’s sister company, Pso, which has become one of the most important independent French specialists of aluminium slat profiling for rolling shutters and garage doors. Pso has enjoyed dynamic growth since its creation in 2005 and its future development challenges now require Jean-Philippe Dujarry’s full-time investment.

The aluminium rolling shutter manufacturing market is becoming increasingly competitive with the creation by external growth of large specialist groups and a marked internalisation of shutter production by window manufacturers.

It is in this context that the idea first arose of a merger between Sodicob and its small Toulouse-based competitor Verso directed by Marc Faugeras. This possibility then occured all the more readily that the executives of the two companies have known and liked each other for many years. From the complementarity of the two companies, who do not have any shared clients and who are positioned on different market segments, surfaced a concrete merger project coupled with a managerial transition operation.

Thus, at the end of 2019, Sodicob acquired Verso and Jean-Philippe Dujarry ceded his Managing Director role to Marc Faugeras to support the creation of a new group with a turnover of nearly €8 million and intended in time to establish the industrial and commercial synergies necessary to maintaining the competitiveness of both players. The operation also facilitated the transfer of Verso capital by providing the liquidity for the shares held by two other associates, who co-founded the company in 2007 with Marc Faugeras.

The rolling shutter market was worth €1.2 billion pre-tax in 2017 (+5-6%). French industry is the country’s primary supplier of rolling shutters (90% of the supply). Source: Marché des Volets en France 2018 [French Shutter market, 2018], Msi.