Adie is operational balance in 2011 and its financial balance in 2013 If there is a gap it is a gap in the law he saidIn addition today's conflicts are conventional forcesThe geography of the boat trip is specialThe decline in the price of raw materials rubber oilAt the same time they secure their gainsThe age of the mobile Internet has arrivedMoreover since early 2009 the market decline And then seventeen years I work in the citySince 2000 they tend to drop to alarm Guy RibaWhat common point between Bernard Hinault, winner in 1985 for the fifth and final time in his career as the Tower of France, and the Chinese Guo Shuang, Medal of bronze in women's speed at the recent Beijing The two champions were on bikes equipped by Look Cycle International (400 employees). Petit Poucet in the world of the cycle to large international groups such as the American Trek, the Taiwanese Giant or Japanese equipment manufacturer Chimano, this SME de Nevers (Nièvre) is his salvation to innovation. Born of the patent of the automatic pedal in 1983 inspired the concept of the ski binding for shoe and easily remove their shoes, the company holds today a quarantine and, not less than 200 with international extensions. "Innovation is part of our culture.". "Better, it's home of second nature", says Dominique Bergin, buyer of the company in 1998, with a few executives.
Distinctions
The centre integrated R & d, divided into 3 divisions (composite, pedals and patents) employs 11 engineers and has an annual budget of 3.5 million, or 10 of global turnover. It hunts the slightest improvement to the various components of a bicycle, in terms of weight, strength, functionality and design. With success! In recent months Look Cycle collected envied distinctions: design star awarded by the Association for industrial creation (Apci), Burgundy, national trophy Inpi 2009 innovation trophy and bike of the year 2008. Des awards that are nothing to chance. In Look, no Professor Nimbus, nor even of Eureka! Everything is thought out, matured and worked in an empirical manner. Left to drop projects developed over a long period to better back them a few years later. "We have thus abandoned the manufacture of bicycles mountain bike to the early 2000s, because they could industrialize at competitive costs, for the better in 2007," said Thierry Fournier, Director-General.
Technologies mastered
Success offset Fortunately these few failures, very penalising financially. The latest Automatic pedals, for which the company is world number one with 450,000 annual units, interested in the discipline of mountain biking. Named "Quartz", it proposes a lightness, a support surface, evacuation of mud and a system for attaching the shoe unique in the world. The perfect master for managers of technology of carbon, born of the Bernard Tapie years who led the manufacturer from 1983 to 1989, led to innovations in backwash. While it was commonly accepted that the wheel had to paste more than possible the framework to improve performance, Look is now the reverse for its speed bikes. Aerodynamic studies carried out, in the former Ligier wind tunnel, and Alain Prost to two steps from the circuit of Magny-Cours (town of Nevers), support this position. The spacing between the branches of the shrouds and the wheel back, voluntarily extended, promotes better air flow. A principle also applied between the pads of the fork and the front wheel. "Our competitors are trying by all means show the contrary, they are just right when the wheels do not rotate" fun Thierry Fournier.
Once patented and industrialized, either to Nevers, or in the Tunisian unit created in 2001, each innovation is finally saved by former major champions. Laurent Jalabert, the man with 100 victories on the road with Look, is part of the home consultants. Triathlon, it feels last bikes of this discipline derived from the runway and shrewdly advised for other models. Pay strategy coupled with a carrier image. The French company will equip 2010 Chinese athletes. A challenge in a country that produces more than 90 of all cycles sold around the world. \
