The company commemorated its history for its 100th anniversary.
A century has passed since the founding of Galland et Brochard in 1922, a company aiming to respond to the growing demand for carbon paper. Originally bearing the name of its founders, a commercial brand was established in 1925, subsequently to become the name of the Group. ARMOR was born.
The business rapidly took on an industrial dimension with a factory being opened at the Chantenay site in 1956. ARMOR subsequently developed inked ribbons for typewriters, followed by fax4 rolls.
In 1983 the company was the first in Europe to acquire Thermal Transfer technology. 1990 was the year the new plant in La Chevrolière came on stream, and it has since more than doubled in size. The 1990s were also to see the first investments in remanufactured Laser cartridges at ARMOR Industries in Morocco, and also the development and launch of the first ARMOR Inkjet cartridges.
The Group took on an international dimension just before the millennium, notably with the creation of the subsidiaries ARMOR Asia and ARMOR USA in 1999, followed by ARMOR China in 2004 and ARMOR Brazil in 2007. The subsidiaries in India, Africa and Mexico were established in 2014, followed closely by subsidiaries in Canada in 2015 and Colombia one year later.
2010 marked the commencement of the Group’s diversified businesses, commonly referred to as the NewTechs. Notably through the launch of the OSCAR R&D program, which led 7 years later to the market introduction of the ASCA organic photovoltaic solutions. A second
NewTech was born in 2015, namely ACES, producing current collectors for batteries and supercapacitors. Lastly, in 2018, the additive manufacturing business was founded and baptized KIMYA.
As the history of ARMOR is really only just beginning, it has more recently been marked by the incorporation of two key companies. In 2020, the organic photovoltaic films business merged with the German company Opvius. In the following year, the Thermal Transfer business also announced a major acquisition, leading to the creation of ARMOR-IIMAK.
In 100 years, the company has grown and diversified. In 2022, it is a group with 26 industrial and logistics sites and research centers around the world, employing 2,450 people (including 780 in France) and generating sales of €403 million ($474 million). ARMOR is the world leader in Thermal Transfer ribbons and the leading seller of remanufactured laser cartridges in France. The company is majority owned by its management and employees.
“For 100 years, it has been the men and women of the ARMOR community who have made the company grow. This anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate, to share, to reminisce… An opportunity to highlight the major steps that have made the group what it is today, to discover or rediscover its history as well as that of the employees without whom nothing would have been possible. An invitation to draw from our past the impetus, the audacity and the creativity to build our future” celebrates Hubert de Boisredon, Chairman and CEO of ARMOR.
