THREE DECADES OF technological INNOVATIONS
1986
Our story begins at Christmas 1986 with Pascal PLUCHARD, Founding Chairman of the Group with the acquisition of Reliures Brun.
1988 - 1989
In order to complete the BRUN Bookbinders offering, the group is expanding into 6 factories : Imprimerie CLERC, AGM, RELIFAC, Imprimerie Jean LAMOUR, Ateliers BABOUOT, and TOURNAI- GRAPHIC in Belgium.
We then have 25 offset printing presses and 14 binding chains on nearly 100,000 m2 of workshops
1991
Two working entities are created: Holding Partners and Partenaires Fabrication, available to publishers who wish to obtain a complete book from one single contact. 300,000 hardback-books are
produced daily and 42 million bound-books per year.
1995
Publication of our activity report on a “CD-Rom” presenting the Group and beginning of the Internet era
1997 Worldwide Innovation
An important moment in the Group’s life: implementation of a revolutionary technological innovation that the Americans and Japanese will then copy from us. "Star 2000" was the world's first
industrial binding line to include sewing at the time.
Its inauguration in 1997, will be orchestrated by Jacques WAGNON in the presence of Mr. and Mrs. BRUN as well as many professionals of the Book coming from several continents.
2000
Year of birth of the new registered trademark “Partenaires-Livres®” and acquisition of the WEBER group in Switzerland. 3 new Swiss companies joined the Group: Weber, Actual and Gravor in the “Partenaires Edelweiss” sub-holding.
The group has 31 offset printing presses, 4 rotary presses and 13 complete binding lines dedicated to each book family.
2003
Acquisition of 6 companies: Mecanic Routage, Diguet-Denis, Splichal, Fleurus BD Land, Kapp, and Proostm, giving birth to the new Partners-Book group, now made up of 14 European factories.
2005
The group operates 47 sheet-fed printing presses, 9 rotary printing presses, 37 converting lines bringing together dedicated binding lines and those for paperbacks. Each family is worked with its specific material. In a market that has became “global”, Partenaires-Livres® Group has 200 million Euros in turnover with 1800 companions.
2006 Turn to the East
Sale of our factories in Belgium, Switzerland and France to 3 groups of buyers, with the exception of Babouot and Tournai Graphic. Establishment of our Asian production platform.
2007 Our Second Chapter
Creation of “Book Partners China Ltd” and implementation of our two-legged marketing strategy for book production: Paris for luxury productions and Shenzhen for mass production followed by fellow French technicians.
2009
Creation of The “Maison du Livre” and installation of the group's headquarters along with our European technical platform Partners Fabrications under Asia contract, into our new headquarters in Paris, rue Jean Dolent near Denfert Rochereau.
New 8-color Komori presses put into service in our workshops in China. Thanks to our European supervision, the equipment of our factories in Asia is recognized as having a higher quality than European level.
2010
Acquisition of TBS Service Centers in Brussels, Belgium.
2013
Acquisition of the RCI factory in Romans-sur-Isère, France, specializing in the manufacture of boxes and cardboard boxes for luxury goods and publishing industry.
2016
Acquisition of the Art BOURGOGNE RELIURE binding workshop located since 1898 at 23 rue de Bourgogne in Paris and specializing in the restoration of old books, the maintenance of libraries and the binding of new unique books.
2017
Acquisition of the BARDOT factory in Lagny-sur-Marne, France.
2018 Our Third Chapter
Dissolution of the French company Partenaires Fabrication and sale of the “Front office” part of our Asia business in BPC to two young entrepreneurs to maintain the service to our Publisher clients. Partenaires-Livres® retaining its “BPC” subsidiary with its industrial holdings but fewer commercial activities.
2019
Acquisition of a 21% stake in Librisphaera, a “start-up” specializing in tailor-made individual books / POD (Print on demand)