1083 picks up the pace. The French jeans manufacturer founded in 2013 in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) announced on Monday July 11 that it had raised 1.35 million euros from the Lemoine group, a Norman manufacturer of cotton products, and the Terre & Fils Investissement fund. , an impact investment structure created by Jean-Sébastien Decaux, former director of JCDecaux, to support local know-how.
This capital contribution will make it possible to “modernize production capacity” of the SME, explains its founder, Thomas Huriez. At the head of 12 million euros in turnover, 1083, a clothing brand exclusively made in France, will thus finance the purchase of looms and automatons in its Tissages de France workshop located in Rupt-sur- Moselle (Vosges). Resumed at the helm of the commercial court in 2018, this weaving company supplies denim fabric to the jeans manufacturer and produces large-scale cotton fabrics for other manufacturers and manufacturers.
Public aid
The Covid crisis complicated its relaunch in 2020 and plunged its accounts into the red, with losses of 600,000 euros, in 2021. In this workshop being modernized, following the acquisition of around twenty sewing machines at the end of 2021, Mr. Huriez also intends to install a new, less energy-intensive air compressor to reduce his energy bill for electricity and gas; its amount has increased from 400,000 euros in 2020 to 1 million euros this year.
These investments follow public aid amounting to 375,000 euros obtained in 2021, as part of the recovery plan. Worth a total of 2.5 million euros, they must support the company whose turnover stands at 12 million euros. 1083 promises to manufacture 100,000 jeans per year, in 2024, double that of 2022. “Because the subject today is not ‘How to sell but how to produce? ”»believes the entrepreneur still facing recruitment difficulties.
The man who has created 105 jobs since the creation of his company in 2013 dreams of a “Top Sewing Chef” to upgrade the “human genius in textile factories”. The televised competition broadcast on M6 since 2010 has profoundly improved the image of the catering trades. The clothing sector also deserves it, according to Mr. Huriez. Because, according to him, he is not “not difficult to find capital” to buy machines and automatons, but it would be more difficult to recruit and train in sewing. For ” to be good “in front of a crowbar, he recalls, “It’s like the piano, you need years of learning”.