Company History

Wichard, S.A.  was founded in 1919 by Henri Wichard in Thiers, on the banks of the Durolle river. The business really started developing just after the second world war. Then shaken by the first oil crisis, Wichard rethought its strategy and redeveloped its corporate culture. From being a simple subcontractor forging small parts for various industrial applications, the company defined a three-part development plan:

• Maintaining the manufacture of small parts to customer's drawing , but oriented towards safety components using high quality raw materials (aircraft seat belt clips, brake parts, parachute buckles, cams for high speed machines, security keys, etc.).
• Preparing drop forged blanks for prostheses designed using computers in two dimensions.
• Launching its own products in marine hardware, targeting the whole world and positioning in the high performance area in terms of technology and aesthetics.

The first efforts affected the commercial function, whose numbers were built up to develop exports. Today, business is conducted in four languages (English, German, Spanish and French!)

Then external and internal communication concepts were established making use of the most suitable media (professionally designed catalogs, well drafted adverts, attendance at exhibitions, and real dialog with employees’ representatives).

Over the last six years the Company has focused on the development of the most difficult products to manufacture. These are generators of higher added value and use the highest quality raw materials - stainless steel and difficult metals like titanium or cobalt.

Today, the Company has achieved a high quality international reputation. In February 1997, the Defense Ministry considered that the Company Quality system satisfied AQAP 120 requirements (Allied Quality Assurance Publication), that is ISO 9002 to which NATO’s specifications are added.

It is worth stressing that, in geographic terms, the most demanding Countries are Wichard’s number one clients. Top comes Germany, followed by the USA and then Switzerland, etc.

In August 1992, Wichard Inc. was established in the USA in order to handle distribution of marine products; and in 1994 a small sized company with 15 employees located in St. Malo joined the group, thus adding a line of blocks to the existing range of marine hardware.