At Amsa, in Saint-Rome de Tarn in Aveyron, we make solid with metal reinforcements for concrete

L’entreprise ambitionne de s’étendre et compte racheter une entité toulousaine. Midi Libre – M.DURAND

Fourth and penultimate article in a series of articles on innovative and dynamic companies in South Aveyron with Amsa. The company has been based in Saint-Rome de Tarn for 42 years and continues to expand

When they created Amsa in 1982, a company manufacturing iron reinforcement for concrete, Eliette and Bernard Martin were undoubtedly far from imagining that it would take on such importance in terms of national. The impulse came from within. Laurent Ladet, the current manager of the company, started as a temporary worker and ended up as a salesman in the company which then had around ten employees. In 1996 with Régis Bandinelli, designer, they took over management and then purchased the company 7 years later.

"We targeted the national market and the Toulouse market"

The period was particularly intense for the employee who became a business manager at the age of 26: "We worked all the time, even on weekends. end and not always in good conditions. We were happy, we had demand and know-how." To adapt to the market and be more competitive, it took< em> "do a lot of innovations"  concedes the boss. "We were isolated, we had no local market. We targeted the national market and the Toulouse market with the injection of organization into production. We invested in IT support."

One of the most widely used reinforcement manufacturing management software in the world was developed in Saint-Rome-de-Tarn. & quot;This is the most elaborate version, this software helps us in the design, in the programming of the machine, in production monitoring and in the traceability of the product, which is essential when working on sites such as nuclear power plants.& ;quot;

A new site near Brive in 2016

Thanks to the IT tool "the company controls production. There is no stock. What is produced is delivered the next day" he indicates. The frames are made to measure and comply with current standards and certifications.
The company delivers major projects in France: Nîmes-Montpellier TGV line, nuclear power plants, Toulouse metro, Lyon stadium… and sometimes abroad, notably for the Ariane 6 rocket site, in Denmark for the Vinci group for special armatures. In 2016, the company consolidated and opened a new site near Brive with now 20 employees for the Paris and Bordeaux markets. To "stand out from the competition, the company also installs the reinforcements".

The takeover of a Toulouse structure to come

Around sixty employees are dedicated to this task, teams of four people ensure the assembly of the reinforcements on construction sites in France. "The workforce will grow further with the purchase and resumption, at the beginning of April, of an already existing structure in the Toulouse region. This growth requires several trades: building designers, human resources manager, secretary, salesperson, quality manager, drivers, production workers…"

For the latter, "the profession does not exist, we do not learn it at school", specifies the manager. "We build a model. We glue it with solder. Our job is not welding. We take people who want to work with logic and desire and we train them." The lack of staff is "one of the difficulties of the company" which must "constantly adapt to face logistical and technical challenges and profitability" with Saint-Rome-de-Tarn as an anchor point.

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