The history of FACOM beats to the rhythm of the 20th century's industrial progress.
The FACOM brand is associated with the great advancements of this century. Automobiles, railways, aviation, aeronautics, and major adventures such as deep-sea exploration, space conquest, medical progress, high technologies, extreme sports, monuments, and the largest construction projects of the era bear the brand's seal.
From the single, modest adjustable wrench of its origins to the thousands of products and innovations offered in the latest catalog, FACOM has become the leading hand tool brand in Europe.
Its history remains marked by a commitment to a tradition: better serving men and women in all trades, enhancing their professional performance, and improving the quality of their daily work.

In the heat of a small workshop, amidst the clatter of hammered metal and the hiss of tempering steel, a small wrench is born: thirty centimeters long, with two rounded jaws of forged steel at the end of a simple cast-iron handle from the Ardennes.
We are just a stone's throw from the Gare de Lyon, in working-class Paris of 1918. The First World War had definitively consecrated the triumph of mechanics and technology over the strength and courage of men. Machines would revolutionize the world of work just as they had revolutionized the art of battle.
France anxiously awaited this victory, which would restart the economic engine. After four years of massacres in the trenches, the young European survivors wanted to enjoy peace: they craved speed, wealth, and novelty in all areas.
A young engineer from Arts et Manufactures, Louis Mosès, understood that the post-war period would be conducive to daring enterprises. He also knew that human hands would nevertheless remain indispensable for building the hoped-for economic recovery.
On May 8, 1918, with a few relatives and friends, he founded the Franco-Américaine de Construction d'Outillage Mécanique company, specializing in hand tools. The initials FACOM would later become established. This name was very proud for this small French artisanal factory, which employed barely ten workers. However, it demonstrated a certain skill in the art of attracting customers (marketing was not yet a concept), but the will to innovate was there.
The Americans had impressed the French with their lavish display of military equipment and the advancement of their various industrial techniques, so the term "Franco-Américaine" was used to project an image of seriousness and quality.
The first wrench produced by "la" FACOM was a unique, rustic model, simply burnished. For a year, it would be the company's only product. Codenamed "clé 101," more familiarly "Madame 101," this adjustable wrench would be sold to the railway companies of the time. To be honest, it must be admitted that it bore a striking resemblance to the "English" Clyburn wrench. But that was a common practice at the time...
Barely retouched, the 101 would end its long career in the 1960s. Today, collectors eagerly seek out the rare tools manufactured at the time and salvaged from that heroic age.

LOUIS MOSÈS - THE FOUNDING FATHER
The founder of "la" FACOM would entrust his son André with the task of making the family business one of the leading international names in the industrial world.
This engineer from Arts et Manufactures was still very young when he founded his small tool company with family capital. He would be responsible for design and marketing.
His commercial acumen can be appreciated when one considers the impact the adjective "Franco-Américaine" could have on French customers in 1918.

Two years after the company's inception, the number of workers had barely changed, but FACOM acquired a new forge in Gentilly, a suburb of Paris. On land that belonged to the Mosès family, the 1500 square meters of buildings housed machining, fitting, tempering, grinding, polishing, and assembly. The factory, built in 1920 on the ruins of Queen Blanche's castle, still had only one engine! The market for wrenches was booming, and FACOM's only two salesmen were kept busy.
One of them, Alsatian Gustave Schoettlé, would later create a distribution company that still exists today. His descendants, loyal to FACOM, have made Schoettlé establishments the leader in the Alsatian market for the distribution of automotive parts and industrial supplies.
In the 1920s, automobiles began to invade the roads, and FACOM's range expanded. A first contract was signed with Renault for a 23 cm rack wrench, then with Peugeot for an "English" wrench with a wooden handle.
The first FACOM catalog was distributed by representatives in 1924. It comprised only a few pages and not many more references: one notable item was the "Autobloc" quick-tightening rack wrench. For deliveries, patience was requested, as wrenches were delivered in Paris by car, or rather... by horse! The cost of the journey: 15 F, or €10 today. The quality of FACOM's service was already noticeable.
Then innovations multiplied: the French market discovered the first pipe wrenches (Stillson type) thanks to FACOM in the mid-1920s. With success, the company soon had a hundred workers and a team of six representatives. Here again, we find the desire to stay at the forefront and the pioneering spirit that has always guided the company.
Another market was as promising as it was innovative: aeronautics. The age of "those magnificent men in their flying machines" was well over. The brilliant tinkers had been replaced by the first major aviation industrialists.
It was time for the conquest of the skies; when planes, maintained with tools specially designed by FACOM, took off, international connection records fell. FACOM established ongoing relationships with Air France from the national airline's creation in 1933.
The culmination of this dual desire to support the progress of automotive and aviation industries was the first FACOM logo. It was represented by two wings framing a hexagonal bolt, two symbols of booming mechanical industries with a promising future. The company has retained this mark of recognition to this day. It is the current winged bolt that signifies FACOM production.

For years, FACOM has operated under the dual patronage of the bolt and the wing. The company's current logo incorporates this symbolism by simplifying and stylizing it.
This is a guarantee of innovative dynamism and a double assurance of reliability and safety. For millions of users, professionals in all trades, on all five continents, as well as in the air or on the seas, the winged bolt stands as the mark of a valuable ally in the most extreme circumstances.

In the early 1930s, the breakthrough in the French hand tools market was confirmed. Over 500 items were offered in the catalog, featuring "Union," "Eclair," and "Champion" wrenches, as well as the "Bulldog" wrench for cyclists.
FACOM distributed open-end wrenches, tube wrenches, box wrenches, the famous "Royal" and "Idéale," and socket wrenches in France. This confirmed FACOM's traditional vocation: providing professionals in all trades with the most suitable tools for their work.
The same concern for quality: in 1937, the first socket tools appeared, as well as the first chrome-plated wrenches. A luxury at the time, as production had previously only been "browned."
FACOM established itself in the high-end tool market without neglecting other niches. The company even attempted diversification into the market for... meat grinders for housewives!
FACOM hardly experienced any of the major strikes that affected French industry during the Popular Front in 1936. The quality of human relations within the company prevented any crisis and defused social conflicts. When World War II broke out, despite the debacle of 1940, FACOM managed to preserve its achievements and industrial potential, as well as its workers, most of whom avoided compulsory labor service in German factories.

MAURICE SCHEID, A YOUNG APPRENTICE OF THE THIRTIES
Maurice Scheid was thirteen years old when he joined FACOM in the 1930s, at the Gentilly forge.
"I was just a clumsy, rather awkward apprentice. My mentor in the workshop thought it best, to get me started, to familiarize me with open-end wrenches on an old lathe.
I also carried out the milling operation for the openings, followed by filing to deburr, and finally, water quenching.
How archaic was that old country coal forge that the quenchers lit and that I watered to harden!
I then drilled a hole at the base to place the wrenches. When they were scarlet, the quencher "Prussified" the jaws (it was donkey-shoeing steel), put them back in the fire, then threw them into a trough of water. My job was to remove the heating water with a bucket and replenish it with cold water, as there was neither drainage nor an inlet pipe.
Then, the pieces were taken out and scrubbed with a brush, then immersed in oil. This was the end of the machining operations. The wrenches were transported to the store without being chrome-plated; chrome plating did not exist at that time. I remember that when the water was not sufficiently cooled, I would get a few kicks in the backside!
My salary? 0.50 Francs per hour, about 2 Francs today, and 9.5 hours of continuous work. For comparison, a meal in a company canteen cost 3 Francs, or 12 current Francs."

As soon as hostilities ended, business resumed. France and Europe had to recover from their ruins. Industrial markets were immense. As after the First World War, FACOM's leaders understood that a new industrial era had begun and gave themselves the means not to miss this rendezvous with history.
Post-war France would go down in history as the "Trente Glorieuses" (Thirty Glorious Years), thirty years of unprecedented economic prosperity. Growth and improved well-being were also widely shared by all developed countries. For FACOM, it was a major turning point that would elevate a family SME to the status of a multinational, with an average annual sales growth of 13% during these three decades and a fourfold increase in pre-war production.
The evolution of industrial technologies gradually, but thoroughly, changed tool production. Innovations multiplied under the dual pressure of productivity and the growing needs of a booming economy: automation of workshops and production techniques, with the increasing role played by electronics and then IT, new heat treatments, new materials (metals, plastics, etc.), forging and heading techniques, and advances in metallurgical knowledge.
Europeans discovered the consumer society and its thousand temptations at the same time as the leisure society: the explosion of the home appliance market accompanied that of the automobile market and prepared for the irruption of IT into the daily lives of hundreds of millions of consumers. Industrial zones and shopping centers sprang up on the outskirts of cities. Borders themselves were abolished by modern means of communication.
Europe was covered with highways. Even space was conquered when the first Sputnik launched its beeping in 1957, a prelude to the American moon landing in 1969. Soon, Concorde would put New York less than three hours from Europe and the TGV would connect London, Paris, or Brussels in just over two hours.

ANDRÉ MOSÈS - THE FRENCH CONSECRATION
Born in 1916, two years before his father founded FACOM, André Mosès trained as an engineer at the Ecole Centrale before joining the company. He became President in 1945, at the age of 29, and transformed the small industrial unit in Gentilly into the leading French manufacturer.
His team brought together men like Camille Creusot (sales) and Roger Leroux (financial management), all marked by their creative imagination. They are credited with the FACOM catalog, the first demonstration trucks, employee profit-sharing policy, management control, and the Lifetime Guarantee.

In the early 1950s, FACOM produced 50,000 parts per month. In the early 1970s, twenty years later, the single factory in Villeneuve-Le-Roi would "churn out" 50,000 per day! By 1993, the FACOM group was manufacturing over 200,000 parts per day. To keep up with demand, machine tools were desperately needed: some were salvaged... from the bottom of the sea. These were milling machines found in German ships sunk by the British. Shells had to be scraped off before dismantling them to get them back in working order!
Let's highlight some of the significant post-war innovations: the first extractors in 1945, ratchets in 1946, the first adjustable wrenches with automatic play compensation in 1948, the first patent for the torque wrench in the same year, the first screwdrivers with "Isoryl" handles in 1950. Then came the wheel balancer in 1954, and the saw frame with automatic hand positioning in 1959.
On all fronts, markets were booming. To name just a few obvious examples, transportation (cars, planes, trains, soon the conquest of space and oceans) and mechanical industries would experience more upheavals in thirty years than in the previous centuries.
The impact of this explosion on the very concept of trade and distribution was no less spectacular. André Mosès, continuing the work begun by his father, brought back some new ideas from the United States on business and human resource management. FACOM would thus lead most French companies in the field of marketing and social progress within the company. FACOM innovated as early as 1946, with its demonstration and exhibition trucks, an original way to be present in the field while remaining attentive to customer needs.
The FACOM advisor, in contact with users in a company, used these visits to present new tools, distribute the catalog, and listen to their expectations. The distribution network itself was expanded and specialized, depending on the industrial or automotive dominance of the activity.
A particular effort was made for export. FACOM explored markets in Northern Europe and around the Mediterranean. FACOM incursions into South America and Southeast Asia were also reported. The pioneering spirit of FACOM demonstrators was such that, in some foreign countries, they sometimes ate and slept in their exhibition trucks. In Africa, one FACOM representative, whose territory covered millions of square kilometers, even went so far as to have his truck guarded by a... tamed lion!

FACOM LIFETIME WARRANTY
The major innovation in 1952: the decision to grant a "lifetime warranty" on all tools. Unprecedented in the European industrial world. A FACOM idea, often imitated since, but never so widely applied: this warranty is truly "total," with no time limitations, regardless of the condition of the tool, provided it has been used under "normal" conditions. Today, this warranty still covers most of the tools in the catalog.
In 1956, FACOM expanded and installed a forge, then all of its structures in Villeneuve-Le-Roi, near Orly; 460 people worked there.
The company's growth was such that activities would soon have to be decentralized. This led to the creation of the Ezy-sur-Eure industrial site (1967), followed by Nevers (1974), while the head office and central warehouse moved to Morangis in 1970.
FACOM's leading position among hand tool manufacturers was achieved around 1960. The catalog, then over 100 pages long, was printed in 100,000 copies. The range of tools and garage equipment had further expanded with many new creations.

FACOM entered the Paris stock markets in 1971.
Market internationalization became part of the company's strategy in 1970, with the creation of FACOM's Belgian and German subsidiaries. These were followed by the Italian (1971), English and Dutch (1977), Swiss (1981), American (1982), and Spanish (1988) subsidiaries.
In 1974, upon the death of André Mosès, son of FACOM founder Louis Mosès, the catalog, printed in 320,000 copies, offered over 4000 references.
In 1983, FACOM was recognized as the European leader in hand tools (9% market share), ranking third globally. One in three tools was sold outside France.
Over the years, the FACOM group has integrated several companies such as Piolé (sheet metal work), Bost (pliers), Garnache (screwdrivers), Virax (pipe working tools), Dela (measurement), Mingori (bending machines), Britool (automotive and industrial tools), USAG (Italian hand tool leader), and SK Hand Tool Corp. (American tightening specialist).

The company, which describes itself as a multi-specialist, operates in markets as diverse as mechanical engineering, aerospace, electrical engineering, electronics, public works, building, and automotive.
The ambition is clearly stated: to establish itself, in every professional market, as the manufacturer capable of guaranteeing production quality, innovation capacity, and service guarantees adapted to each profession.
This evolution allows for reconciling human progress through the reduction of arduous tasks and industrial progress, through the improvement of product quality. Not to mention social progress, by saving energy and raw materials or by recycling industrial waste.

Production capacity: The ISO 9002 certification granted to FACOM shows how much the company is already part of the post-industrial era, with guaranteed quality assurance at all stages of production, marketing, and a concern for environmental preservation.
Innovation capacity: The latest catalog features an average of four new or improved tools out of every ten presented. The FACOM group dedicates approximately 3% of its turnover to innovation, which also involves nearly 20% of its workforce. It is essential for the group to remain attentive to professionals in each trade to design new solutions and thus meet every expressed need. FACOM experts are capable of every success. For example, they developed a series of titanium tools for the English car manufacturer McLaren, a metal never before used in the world of tooling. Such an exceptional set of wrenches was necessary to equip such revolutionary cars.
Service guarantee: FACOM's logistics, also certified, ensures professionals almost total availability of all catalog references, as well as real delivery times unmatched in the market. Coupled with the famous "FACOM Guarantee," this quality of service is reinforced and amplified by the commercial system: a network of 5000 distributors, in more than 100 countries, ensured in 1990 the distribution of 7259 tool references and a catalog published in 10 languages and printed in 800,000 copies.

This network is supported by over 200 commercial advisors or active partner representatives of the distributors. In recent decades, FACOM has continuously met ever-renewed technological challenges.
On the main European car racing circuits, from F1 Grand Prix to promotional races, the FACOM Technical Assistance truck is well known, lending all the tools from the catalog to all drivers competing in the event.
This tradition of confronting technological challenges also aligns with advances in contemporary aviation and aeronautics. It would seem, according to television, that a FACOM tool was even inadvertently forgotten in one of the satellites put into orbit by the Ariane rocket. Onboard in space, it has been circling above our heads for several years. This would only confirm the long-standing partnership between FACOM and the conquerors of the sky. Many airlines, including Air France, British Airways, KLM, Singapore Airlines, and Malaysian Airlines, as well as Aerospatiale (Airbus), trust FACOM for the maintenance of their aircraft.
From the infinitely large to the infinitely small, FACOM innovates with Micro-Tech®, a new tooling concept for small and precise work. This range meets the needs of professions as varied as household appliance maintenance, embedded electronics in cars or planes, watchmaking, micro-computing, and advanced surgery. The same concern for contributing to human progress is found in the conquest of the oceans. FACOM tools now tackle the deep seabed (they are world champions in deep-sea work, with participation in the recent world record for diving in a caisson at 701 meters) and oil platforms, which trust the reliability of FACOM tools. More spectacular, but still very much in the FACOM spirit of staying at the forefront: the major works and monuments that will mark the 20th century. To build the Grande Arche de La Défense as well as to bore the Channel Tunnel, to etch the TGV network into the French landscape as well as to build this train of the future, people needed FACOM tools to successfully lead their victorious battle for collective well-being.
And the adventure is not over. It can now continue in the path laid out by the company's founders: to produce quality tools, innovate in all areas to stay at the forefront, and ensure human progress at the same pace as economic progress.