“Two months ago, I never thought I would ever work for the Elysée Palace. It is impressive to see how far our approach has taken us, ”says François Chantriaux. At 27, he is the co-manager of Usipanel with his brother Pierre, two years older. This family-run SME based in Balma, in the Toulouse agglomeration (Haute-Garonne) has just fitted anti-pinch windows with 20 vehicles of the advisers of the Presidency of the Republic. Nine Peugeot Traveler, ten Renault Zoé and one Renault Clio will thus be fitted with plastic barriers fixed on the rods of the headrest of cars between the rear passenger and driver. Pierre Chantriaux made the trip Tuesday evening to Paris to ask them today
An unexpected partnership
A week ago, this young boss had the idea of offering this product at the Elysée. “My brother pointed out that members of the government have already been infected with the virus. So we said that there was a need to protect these people who travel in vehicles with driver, says François Chantriaux. To contact the Elysée, we simply searched the Internet, where we found the switchboard number. We were given an email address through which we offered to offer our windows. During the day, we received a positive response for around twenty cars. "
An unexpected partnership for this small company whose usual activity, before the Covid-19 epidemic, was the transformation of wooden and plastic panels for aeronautical tools, communication or events. To adapt to the health crisis, it has rebounded with this innovative product that it has already offered to traders and pharmacists in the region before declining it for taxis, ambulances, VTC drivers ...
" Everything happened really fast. It is really a pride for us to see our product and our name on the vehicles of the Presidency, confides the Toulouse boss. We never imagined that! We hope that this will give us visibility with other customers. Word-of-mouth is already on the move since Usipanel was contacted by the VTC Marcel platform, seduced by their anti-pinch windows which could be recommended to its 3,000 drivers.