In receivership since January 5, the printing ink manufacturer Brancher will disappear. For lack of a buyer, the Commercial Court of Chartres declared its liquidation on April 6. The 180 year old company will close in a few weeks.
"I took over this company four years ago, says its director Emmanuel Têtu. We had big plans, covid cut us off in our tracks, and the war in Ukraine finished us off."
Renamed New Brancher company when it is taken over in 2019 by the current CEO, the ink producer and distributor located in Tremblay-les-Villages in the Eure-et-Loir region of France, has 46 employees and achieved a turnover of nearly 8 million euros in its last fiscal year, half of which was generated internationally.
Raw material prices multiplied by almost 100
Emmanuel Têtu explains: "The first fiscal year was very good, the second, 2020, a little less so, as we entered the covid period. SN Brancher was still profitable (183,000 euros of net income compared to 1 million the previous year, Editor's note), but it was complicated. Then the war in Ukraine and with it its raw material price increases finished us off."
The soybean oil bought 95 cents costs two months after the beginning of the war 4.10 euros, the price of the ester is multiplied by 95...
"So we were competing with manufacturers who produce in India and our cost prices were their selling prices in France."
Vegetable inks in short circuit, the project which will not see the day
The banks' refusal to accept the project also leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. "With the covid, no bank wanted to follow us to invest in the industrial tool. We had planned to formulate new vegetable inks, such as linseed oil, and to produce them in a short circuit by working with farmers in the region, instead of supplying us with rapeseed oil from Brazil or Canada. We collaborated with Pagora, the laboratory located in Grenoble, to develop vegetable pigments, based on algae in particular. Everything was programmed to succeed..."
The name of Brancher which does not disappear completely
The Brancher name won't disappear completely, however. In 2020, the CEO launched the distribution company Brancher Graphic, which offers consumables for the graphic arts (blankets, fountain additives...). With the closure of the ink production sites, Emmanuel Têtu wishes to direct Brancher Graphic exclusively towards the distribution of inks and varnishes. "Brancher will thus live on."
