ACOME is the french largest SCOP. A SCOP is Cooperative and Participative Company, a type of company where each employee is also a shareholder of its company. That SCOP stands in Mortain in Normandy, (department of Manche – 50) for more than 30 years (see exact locatin of Mortain at the bottom of the article).
ACOME is ranked 66th in the top 100 largest cooperatives in France in 2013. The second SCOP of this ranking is Chèque Déjeuner at 74th place. It is essentially the agricultural cooperatives that make up the bulk of the battalion of cooperative enterprises in France, with 69 companies in the top 100. Next come banks' co-operatives, then merchants and then consumers.
In 2013, there were more than 2,000 SCOPs in France for a total turnover of 3.8 billion Euros. They employ 42,000 employees.
In 2017, they are more than 3,177 companies for a turnover of 5 billion Euros. They now have 57,700 jobs.
Out of the 300 SCOPs born in 2017, 200 are pure creations (ex-nihilo) and represent 21% of jobs created over the year.
ACOME's business sector, cable production. It is one of the largest centers of European cable production (3rd European), cables that can be found in all the high-tech industries of today: energy, buildings, vehicles, telecommunications infrastructure.
ACOME began manufacturing cables for telephony in 1932. In 1980, the Mortain plant started manufacturing fiber for the very high speed of our networks of tomorrow. Of course, it counts among its customers France Telecom, but also the German Deutsche Telekom, the Belgian Belga Telecom or the Norwegian Telenor.
ACOME expands also internationally.
In Morocco, with a factory geared towards production for the automotive sector.
In China, from 2000, with the establishment in Xintai (Shandong) of a telecommunications-oriented factory. Then, recently, a second factory focused on the production of power cables for the production of electric and hybrid vehicles for the local market (PSA, General Motors, and Volkswagen).
It is also present in Brazil, in Curitiba (Parana), where it manufactures wires and cables for Renault, General Motors and Ford. It irrigates MERCOSUR from this factory. Its first factory built outside France to follow the expansion of its customer Renault.
Germany remains the largest client of ACOME where it is a tier 2 supplier for Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen. But the automobile is not only its strong point in Germany, it is also present in the building and telecommunications with notably Deutsche Telekom as main client.
Today, the automobile accounts for 36% of ACOME's production, just behind the historical activity in telephony / telecommunications (38%). The third area for which ACOME does not yet have a factory abroad, building networks with 26%.
Who says partner of advanced sectors, says need to invest permanently in the tools of production to stick at best with the technological evolution which is declined in rise in flow, reliability of the products, densification of the networks, latency and consumption of energy.
Between 2018 and 2021, ACOME will invest 27.7 million Euros in the modernization of its Mortain production facility, with financial support from the State and the Normandy Region.
It will also invest in men's training and will create diploma courses for the professions of tomorrow that are written today in its production lines.
ACOME's expertise takes its full dimension in the expected convergence between the automobile and the 5G standard communication networks (connected car, autonomous or not).
Faced with international giants who are 10 times the size of ACOME, register in the long time and be constantly anticipating the next shot, is a vital necessity.
ACOME in figures :
President Managing Director : Jacques de Heere (since 1993)
Annual Turnover : 390 millions Euros in 2012
452 millions Euros in 2016,
504 millions Euros in 2017
Employees : 1 365 employees-shareholders including 265 outside France.
5 production plants in France.
The Mortain site is the only optical fiber production site for the entire world.
A power cable plant geared towards automotive in Brazil..
A power cable plant geared towards automotive + A power cable plant geared towards telecommunications in China.
Mortain: a multi-products production site nicknamed « Delivery factory » throughout Europe in less than 72 hours with a fleet of 20 to 25 trucks.
Every year in May, for 16 years, ACOME has organized its symposium in Silicon Valley to meet the major players of the world of tomorrow, in all sectors (GAFAM, automotive, telecommunications, buildings, etc ...) and see how the networks of tomorrow will be articulated. What are the expected changes to today's standards ?
7th of July 2015 : ACOME acquires Idea Oprtical, which specializes in the design and manufacture of patching equipment and optical connectivity, to strengthen its expertise in the field. External link - pdf archive.
The other regional champions in the Cooperative field :
- The Isigny-Sainte-Mère agricultural cooperative (Manche - 50),
- The brands Associate Pharmacists and Santallis (Seine-Maritime- 76) belonging to ASTERA Group,
- The Agrial agricultural cooperative (Calvados - 14) whose famous brands are : Florette, Manon, Priméale, Prim’Co, Créaline, Crudi, Loïc Raison, Danao, Vicomte, Ecusson, Kerisac.
- Group Maitres Laitiers du Cotentin (Manche – 50) with the brand Montebourg,
- Coopérateurs de Normandie-Picardie (Seine-Maritime – 76) with the brands Hyper U, Super U, le Mutant, Point Coop.
- The agricultural cooperative Cap Seine (Seine-Maritime – 76) with the brand Lunor.
Other regional champions at the International level (but not in the Cooperative domain) :
- The Hamelin Group based in Caen (Calvados - 14) is the oldest company in the city (1864). Initially specialized in lithography and accouting book editing, it changed its register in the 1960s and became a European leader in school stationery. This company is market leader in Great Britain, Spain and Italy. In France, it is preceded only by Exacompta Clairefontaine. Learn more by reading this article.
- Themocoax (Orne - 61), producer of heating cables with mineral insulation. 280 employees, 80% of turnover achieved on export. Learn more by following this link.
- Guy Degrenne in Vire (Calvados - 14), specialist of tableware. 400 employees on the Vire site, 25% of turnover generated internationally but more than a thousand employees outside France. Read more.