The Bruneau Group announces the death of its founder, Jean-Marie Bruneau. He passed away on Wednesday, 20 March 2019, at the age of 88.

"Jean-Marie Bruneau was not like most business leaders. The path to his success was as remarkable as it was atypical. As a true autodidact, his company was the result of hard work. His success was due to the energy he radiated to his teams. He remains a great role model for me, both for his human qualities and for his sense of perfection and, above all, for his flair for business and the importance he attached to good customer service. On behalf of the Bruneau Group, I would like to express my sincere and deepest condolences to his wife Suzanne, his two sons Gilles and Jean-François, as well as his many friends and the Bruneau employees who worked with him", declares Nicolas Potier, President and CEO of the Bruneau Group.

An exemplary career path...

In 1955, the young Jean-Marie, then 23 years old, starts selling stencil folders* by canvassing Parisian offices by bicycle. Anxious to develop his clientele, he starts mailing prospectuses of his products to companies. This is the beginning of distance selling...

The recipe for success is there: useful products that meet the real needs of professionals, prospection by mail and fast, quality delivery. Many years of growth with follow. Jean-Marie Bruneau and his employees gradually expand the company, which becomes a key reference in the mail order office furniture and supplies market.

Innovative, rigorous, demanding and deeply human, he was an exceptional man with a motto "We'll do everything to satisfy customers", a motto that would lay the foundations for his success.

Year after year, the company expands. In the heyday of the 1980s, the company moves from Palaiseau to the industrial zone in Courtaboeuf in l'Essonne (91), where the headquarters and logistics centre are still located today.

At the same time, Jean-Marie Bruneau founds the Fondation JM Bruneau in 1991 to help elderly people. He wants to make himself useful to others and to share the fruits of his success. This foundation will then be placed under the auspices of the Fondation de France. The Fondation JM Bruneau also provides support in varied fields such as employment, housing, integration and health of young people or assistance to elderly or disabled people.

In 1996, at the age of a well-deserved retirement, Jean-Marie Bruneau entrusts the company to the 3 Suisses International Group. Today, the Bruneau Group, which is owned by Equistone and more than a hundred of its own employees, is present in five European countries and has a staff of nearly 800. It continues to grow and has retained the values of goodwill, excellence and commitment to its customers that were instilled by Jean-Marie Bruneau...


* Stencil binder = binder for storing inked copy sheets