Bed bugs are making a comeback in France.
After being eradicated for years by powerful insecticides now banned, they are thriving again, to the point that the government has launched a prevention plan.
To combat this scourge, Le Sommier français, which manufactures bed bases and mattresses in Nogent-sur-Vernisson (Loiret), offers a solution, a discreet barrier kit that prevents insects from crawling up to sleepers.
“We took advantage of the confinement to reflect and we developed a universal system which was twice rewarded at the Lépine competition, and for which we filed a world patent”, explains Claude Levarlet, one of the three founders of this young company.
The anti-bedbug kit comes in the form of rings coated with glue, non-toxic, which fit on the feet of the box spring or the headboard, and which must be changed from time to time.
“It prevents bedbugs from settling.
But if the bed is already infested, it's too late, obviously you have to treat immediately,” he adds.
Sold for 99 euros, the kits are manufactured in Sancerre (Cher) for plastic injection and in the Sommier Français workshops for gluing the washers.
This year, they represented just under 5% of the company's 7 million turnover.
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In very strong growth, this SME, which has grown from 8 to 40 employees in one year in Nogent-sur-Vernisson, distributes its kits to the general public in large furniture stores such as But or Conforama and on the Internet, in addition to its mattresses and box springs.
For 2023, it is betting heavily on winning new customers in the hotel sector and has already equipped two Ibis in Grenoble.
