September 2004
Joubert : the great name of the plywood industry
Doc. Joubert - Eucaliptus school (Fréjus) - Architect DPLG (Draguignan)
As a recognized actor in the international market of the plywood industry, the Joubert Group has become the second European okoume plywood manufacturer. The company is the result of an exemplary family adventure.
As a great name in the plywood industry, the Joubert Group can point out that they are capable of guaranteeing the constant quality of the plywoods manufactured in their plants, such as Joubert First.
The group, with a payroll of 370 employees (including 270 in France) gained its strength from its expertise and its roots, but also from its rigor and from the implementation of a voluntarist policy of constant quality which was unanimously praised by its partners and colleagues. With two manufacturing mills in France (Joubert in Charente; and Sopegar in Charente-Maritime) and one in Port-Gentil, Gabon, the Group produces a total of 70.000 m3 a year, 70% of which are intended for export. The exceptional certified quality and the high diversity of its products, has made Joubert renowned all over the world, from the United States to New-Zealand! o n - l i n e : w w w. n - s c h i l l i n g . c o m As a great name in the plywood industry, JOUBERT has developped plywoods that are now references in the market; such as the Joubert Paint panel (covered with a white melamine film, a quality to be painted) or the Joubert Primed panel (covered with a coat of acrylic paint), stressing the group's reactivity and its capacity of innovation to satisfy the requirements of the markets.
The exceptional qualities and longevity of okoume wood have enabled the Joubert Group to develop plywoods that are now references in the international markets.
2, place Cap Ouest - BP 169 - 17005 La Rochelle Cedex 1 Tel. 05 46 50 15 15 - fax. 05 46 50 15 19 E-mail : agence.schilling@n-schilling.com Site web : www.n-schilling.com
Doc. Joubert
Picture available for downloading on www.n-schilling.com
P R E S S
R E L E A S E
A family story
Starting in the 30's with a little sawmill in order to repair the roofs of his farm, André Joubert, 101 years old this year, set the bases of a real industrial family adventure. Located in Rouillac (charente, France), the young farmer became the local supplier of the villagers. The increasing demand rapidly needed the creation, on the land adjoining the farm, of a forestry factory, specialised in sawing and peeling poplar logs... soon solicited by the local carpenters and craftsmen.
Doc. Joubert - Picture : S. Crampon
In 1966, Guy JOUBERT decided to succeed his father and to enlarge the activity to log peeling, playing a more and more active role in the local economic life, with the creation of jobs and the increasing demand for the poplar logs of the region. The production expanded rapidly to exotic logs. The proximity of La Rochelle's port (La Pallice), the most important European timber port, enabled them to be supplied easily in order to widen the activity to the production of plywood panels as As an exemplary family adventure, today the Joubert Group is headed by Guy Joubert, assisted by his son Thierry soon as 1972. The whole experience Joubert, and Jean-Pierre Villéger, the sales and marketing developped by the Joubert family manager (from right to left in the picture). could then be applied to the exceptional transformation and longevity qualities of okoume, a tropical species from Gabon. The success encountered by these new productions gave birth to the Holding company Etablissements Guy JOUBERT SA with the acquisition, in 1990, of a new production unit, SOPEGAR, established in Saint-Jean-d'Angely, Charente-Maritime and managed by Thierry JOUBERT, André Joubert's grandson. Guy JOUBERT now heads up the Holding company whose offices were set up in the former renovated farm of André Joubert. He manages JOUBERT SAS and SOPEGAR SAS, helped by his son Thierry Joubert and Jean-Pierre Villéger, the Sales and Marketing Manager.
The experience of the Joubert Group is to be found in the manufacture of high quality plywood panels: poplar and okoume logs are first peeled (picture 1), with the veneers being rolled into spools (picture 2) before being dried. Veneers are jointed, glued and pressed, forming plywood panels which are then cut and sanded (picture 3).
Wood, the basis of the plywood production process
Doc. Joubert
control, such as attention and rigor given to the selection of logs, urged the group to create in 2000 la Compagnie des Placages en Bois du Gabon (CPBG), a peeling and drying plant in Gabon, with the partnership of CBG (Compagnie des Bois du Gabon). All this therefore has enabled them to control each step of the production process in order to manufacture high quality plywoods. Today, CPBG peels 40% of the okoume logs manufactured in the Joubert plants. "it enables us to get closer to the forest, to select our raw materials and to take part in the preservation of the natural ressources, explains Jean-Pierre VILLEGER. We directly work with the gabonese foresters who care about long-term forest exploitation."
Almost all the raw material used by the Joubert Group comes from Gabon's forests, a country where the forest industry is the most important sector for employment.
Established on 200.000 m2 of land, including 40.000 m2 of production surface, the two French manufacturing mills belonging to the Joubert group are not only supplied locally with poplar logs (from Poitou-Charentes plantations exploited to last) but they also import okoume and other tropical woods. The concern for supply
Either dealing with okoume peeled by CPBG or logs mainly imported from la Société Nationale des Bois du Gabon (SNBG), almost all the raw material used by the Joubert Group comes from long lasting exploited forests. "It is a way of taking part in the development of this country", explains Jean-Pierre Villéger. In Gabon, the forest industry is indeed the first sector for employment, accounting for 5.000 direct jobs and 10.000 indirect jobs, for a production of 2 million m3 per year.
Doc. Joubert 3
Doc. Joubert 2
Doc. Joubert 1
Doc. Joubert - Picture : S. Crampon
An international recognition
