Menuiserie Petit

A PIONEER BACKED BY SCM

At Luriecq, in the Haut-Forez region, in just a matter of years, the Petit carpentry shop has succeeded in establishing a firm position in both the wood and mixed material carpentry sector thanks to its know-how and already consolidated reputation. At the beginning of this decade, the company made a number of investments, but the one that has really allowed it to increase productivity and widen its horizons is its digital command accord 25 fx work centre manufactured by SCM.

Menuiserie Petit has been playing a leading role in the local wood industry for over thirty years. The company satisfies the requests of local institutions, companies and private customers by offering reliable, added value carpentry services. “Today, about 40% of our clientele is made up of private customers, while the rest consists mainly of building constructors and tenders,” explains Mauro Gramolelli, the current co-director of the Petit carpentry shop.

In 2004 Mauro took the family company back over, together with his wife, and in 2011 they moved to workshops built in Luriecq. Located beside the provincial highway, the company sign hangs proudly on a wooden facade. “Our location has been a significant benefit as it has increased our visibility and allowed us to increase our turnover,” comments Mauro Gramolelli. Menuiserie Petit was previously run by Mauro’s wife’s father and specialised in installation with a carpenter specifically employed at the factory to create special pieces. 

With regard to this particular centre, one benefit is its capacity to produce a wide range of products thanks to the considerable size of its working table and the large number of tools that are always available on the machine. 76 MENUISERIE PETIT - FRANCE “We were looking for a genuinely multi-purpose tool rather than a machine designed for mass production,” comments Mauro Gramolelli.

“Thanks to the accord 25 fx, we can produce more, in a more versatile way, which means we can extend our business to the design and construction of stairs, for example. Thanks to DDX software, the entire process is generated upstream, including the hardware and the preparation of the drillholes for the stop plates, which saves precious time during assembly,” he continues. “We wanted to be able to work simultaneously. To be more precise we wanted to be able to produce one element on one side of the machine while preparing a second on the other. Now we can do that, because on the machine’s automated table, each mobile element has its own motor.

A finish that truly stands out. Menuiserie Petit proposes profiles from 92 mm with high efficiency triple glass, 68 and 78 mm profiles in wood and 68 mm profiles in a mixture of wood and aluminium. Succeeding in maintaining a cutting edge by using a digitally controlled tool to enhance product quality, efficiency and finish in order to give the product real added value is more important than ever in today’s world. “Currently we face a lot of competition from abroad even in the renovation sector,” admits Mauro. “Today, people who are buying a house for the first time tend to pay more attention to the furniture and in, more general, the interior design of their future home than they do to insulation. That means we are a bit worried about the current cuts in tax credit, as it risks opening up the market to products that are cheaper, but lower quality and less effective in terms of energy-saving. For SMEs, like us, it seems more important to invest in systems that can optimise the thermal performance of our products and the quality of our craftsmanship. If we don’t do that these parts of the market risk being eaten up by the large industrialists.”

In 2013, the Menuiserie Petit invested in a paint booth as well as a Samsoud centralised variable flow aspiration system. “We use the paint booth to apply coatings not only to windows, but also to other smaller sections of our production, like cladding, soundproof panelling and even stairs. “To continue standing out from the crowd and in the wake of what we have already achieved with Céribois in terms of the AEV tests, our next step is to be certified by Procime Up (the important French wooden and wooden-aluminium window trademark for manufacturers, carpenters, installers, builders and private customers launched in Autumn 2017 by Céribois). Our aim is to improve the quality and expertise of the finish on our wooden windows and, in the future, we would also like to be become part of Naboco (another Céribois project that guarantees the long life of coatings on joinery with a professional warranty). In any case,” concludes Mauro, “we already guarantee a high-quality finish- the increased success of our wooden and aluminium windows speaks for itself.”

Text credits: Stéphane Jardin for Le Bois International Photo credits: Le Bois International and Menuiserie Petit

Menuiserie Petit