In its permanent concern to master its industrial tool, Focal has just acquired the totality of the GUY.HF firm shares, which owns a unique expertise in the high-range acoustic loudspeaker cabinetwork.
The GUY.HF firm, in Bourbon Lancy, Burgundy, hands over the totality of its capital shares to Focal-JMLab, which had already a part in its capital up to 49% in 2003.This planned integration took place in anticipation of the activity cessation of the manager Jean-Paul Guy coming up in the year 2007. However, he will keep a special part as a technical consultant.
The operational management will be driven by the Focal-JMLab industrial management. Thus, the Bourbon-Lancy site will benefit from the deployment of new methods started in the Saint-Etienne site by Frédéric Sandaus teams, Focal-JMLab production manager. The goal is to combine the unique manual know-how of the structure and the men with the management of flows and modern processes - more adaptability for a better customer satisfaction.
Creativity, quick adaptation, personalized finishes
These are the imperatives that have become inescapable in 2007 to satisfy the demands of the high-range world market.
The site is essentially dedicated to the high-end production and top-end such as Utopia, Electra and Professional SM11 & SM8 lines. With the advent of massive relocation in our industry, the competitive advantage brought by the GUY.HF French structure is strategic for Focal-JMLab that exports 75% of its productions.
About Guy HF
Created in 1945 by Emile Guy, the firm is essentially dedicated to the creation of prestige furniture. Innovative and talented cabinetmaker, Emile Guy becomes famous very early thanks to his rewards won at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1937 for his pieces of furniture, of which the Revue Moderne would say at the time: Emile Guy has a modern spirit, his creations proceed from this spirit: they are simple, and the only research is in the purity of the lines. No ornaments, only the marquetry he uses, either in geometric drawings or in true paintings.
The firm rapidly acquires an industrial know-how in the field of cabinetwork for television sets in the middle of the fifties and the first cabinetwork for acoustic loudspeakers from 1965.
The interest of Jean-Paul Guy*, son of the founder, for High-Fidelity is the explanation to these orientations. Guy HF then supplies the most prestigious brands. The year production of loudspeakers will reach until 22 000 units in 1990, some of them under the brand Guy HF.
Immediately after its creation in 1980, Focal-JMLab becomes a customer of Guy HF. During all these years, the two firms will forge strong links that will go beyond the simple supplier-customer relationship.
The important development of Focal-JMLab in the nineties has a great impact on Guy HF, 95% of its production is dedicated to the single Utopia line and in 2001, Focal almost becomes an exclusive customer. In 2003, Focal-JMLab gets in the Guy HF capital up to 49% to accompany the industrial mutation imposed by the new imperatives as regards design with the Utopia Beryllium and Electra Beryllium lines. The total acquisition of the shares in 2007 marks a new step.
Today, Guy HF employs 20 people wholly dedicated to the top-range loudspeaker production, with all the steps of wood transformation, from the digital cut-out to the sanding and the lacquering according to the most traditional cabinetwork techniques.
* Jean Paul Guy took over from his father, he has been working in the firm since 1955. Aesthete, Contemporary Art and music enthusiast, he is the President of the Burgundy Contemporary Art regional association. He knew how to insufflate and maintain a high sense of creativity in the respect of the values of the firm, harmoniously combining modernism and tradition.
Guy HF's History
