Compagnie française des métaux
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 The factory at Sérifontaine in 1877 | |
| Industry | Metallurgy |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1892 |
| Defunct | 1962 |
| Fate | Merged |
| Successor | Tréfimétaux |
| Headquarters | Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine , France |
The Compagnie française des métaux (CFM) was a French metallurgy company founded in 1892 that acquired the assets of a predecessor that had gone into liquidation. The company operated a number of plants in different locations in France, mainly making copper and aluminum products. In 1962 it was merged with Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre to form Tréfimétaux.
The Société J. Laveissière et Cie was founded in 1812 to manufacture copper products.[1] The Compagnie française des métaux was created in 1867 in Saint-Denis on a 3 hectares (7.4 acres) site. It processed red copper and brass, and employed 500 workers.[2] The plant was at 72 rue Ambroise Croisat.[3]
In 1869 Pierre-Eugène Secrétan (1836–1899) bought a copper and brass mill in the village of Sérifontaine on the Epte river about 85 kilometres (53 mi) northwest of Paris. The plant had been set up by the d’Arlincourt family in 1833–35 as a zinc and brass foundry and rolling mill. Secrétan later donated the copper sheets that cover the Statue of Liberty, built in 1875–76.[4] In 1873, at the request of the French government, Secrétan overhauled a mill to make brass sheets for cartridges at Castelsarrasin, near Toulouse. The factory came into full operation in 1885–86. In 1878 Secrétan bought the Givet copper and brass plant beside the Meuse river on the Belgian border, perhaps the largest such factory in France.[5] That year the Société industrielle des métaux created at Fromelennes-les-Givet.[6]
In 1881 the Société J. Laveissière et Cie was merged with Secrétan's Société anonyme des établissements Secrétan to form the Société industrielle et commerciale des métaux.[1] With additional smaller acquisitions the combined company produced about 25,000 tonnes of copper products annually, or about 10% of total world production. In 1887 Secrétan decided to bypass the London traders and form a syndicate to buy all copper offered by the copper miners and producers at a fixed price higher than the current market price. He was gambling on being able to corner the copper market, but demand did not rise as fast as he predicted and he did not account for new sources of supply or the potential of existing scrap. In 1889 Secrétan's company and its bank, the Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris, both went bankrupt.[5](fr)
History
The Compagnie française des métaux (CFM) was founded in 1892 as a société anonyme.[7][8] It had capital of 75,500,000 francs.[9] In 1892 the President of the Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC) bank, was president of the company.[10] There was no dominant founder or founding family.[11] The CFM took over the assets of the bankrupt Société Industrielle et Commerciale des Métaux in 1893.[5] In 1894 Jacques Edouard Melon (1846–1899), was named director-general and consulting engineer of the Compagnie française des métaux. The board also named Messrs. Mesureur and Hippolyte Fontaine[a] as administrators.[13]
Georges Vésier (1858–1938) was appointed an administrator of the company in 1895, and was appointed President and managing director in 1899. He held important roles in the company until his death in 1938.[14] Georges Vésier proved a strong leader of the Compagnie française des métaux.[15] Émile Demenge, a graduate of the École Polytechnique in 1880, was for many years the only polytechnicien in the company's management, which was dominated by alumni of the École Centrale Paris. However, he reached the position of Managing Director (administrateur délégué).[10] During World War I (1914–18) the company's Ardennes factory was occupied.[16] As of 1924 the CFM had a capital of 40 million francs.[17] In 1930 the company charged Edmond Brion and Auguste Cadet with building a two-story branch in Fez, Morocco, with storage facilities, retail stores and offices on the ground floor and three apartments above.[18]
From 1938 to 1956 Henri Thélier, President of the Crédit Industriel et Commercial, was president of CFM.[10] At the end of World War II the company found itself with low stocks, obsolete equipment and intense competition from abroad. CFM concluded agreements with other companies under which they would each specialize in two or three different lines of business, and agree not to compete. This arrangement lasted for twelve years, and allowed for focused modernization of plant.[19] In the early 1950s the company had capital of 1,492.5 million francs and interests in the Société des Munitions d'Artillerie, Société de Fonderies et Laminoirs d'Honfleur, Forges de Bar-sur Aube, Etablissements Le Maréchal, Société Métaux et Alliages, Sociétés des Etablissements Charpentier, Vogt et Garogne, Compagnie Marocaine de Métaux et d'Entreprises, Laminoirs et Tréfileries d'Afrique, Alais Froges, Société Centrale des Alliages Légers, Société Metallurgique de Gerzat-Studal, Laminoirs et Tréfileries de la Nouvelle Gullia, Société pour la Fabrication de Bouteilles Métalliques and Compagnie Française du Bi-Métal.[20]
Georges Desbrière joined the CFM in 1925 as an engineer, became a director, and then general manager in 1938. In 1948 he was appointed director and general manager. He was president of the Chambre Syndicale des Métaux from 1945 to 1950. In 1952 he joined the Paris Chamber of Commerce as treasurer.[19] Desbrière (b. 1901) was CEO from 1956 to 1962 of the CFM.[21] In 1962 the Compagnie française des métaux merged with the Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre to form Tréfimétaux.[22] Georges Desbrière continued as CEO of Tréfimétaux from 1962 to 1967.[21]
Raoul Collet (1917–2004) was a manufacturing engineer at the Givet factory in 1942, then at Villeurbanne in 1943. He was head of mechanical and electrical maintenance at Givet in 1945. and director of the Villeurbanne factory in 1946. In 1950 he was appointed deputy-director of the Sérifontaine factory, in 1951 director of the Givet factory and in 1955 director of the Couèron factory. He became chief engineer of the factories and then Technical Director in 1963. He continued to rise through the ranks at Tréfimétaux, and was president of that organization in 1980–82.[23]
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