The game Ma Fabrique à Histoires, from the start-up Lunii, should reach 700,000 copies sold by the end of 2020 -

Lunii

  • Some 300,000 copies of “Ma Fabrique à Histoires” are expected to sell this year, a box that allows children to listen to stories in a tree structure they choose themselves.

  • Thanks to this commercial success, a plant in Bayonne, BMS Circuits, has been able to automate the manufacturing processes, to almost align with Chinese production costs.

  • Since October 15, the product on sale is thus 100% made in France.

Lunii's new story is not part of the little box that has been selling like hot cakes since the start of the school year, and that children love so much.

No, this one appeals more to parents, and tells how the small French start-up managed to repatriate its production, from China to Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).

It all started in 2017 at CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas.

“We met and Lunii then told us about its plan to relocate its production,” says Karim Mahé, director of the BMS Circuits factory, in Mouguerre in the suburbs of Bayonne.

The two parties will stop there, but the idea will continue to gain ground.

BMS Circuits "has almost aligned itself with Chinese products"

“In fact, we have always wanted to have a French production, assures Igor Krinbarg, one of the founders of Lunii, but at the start we simply did not have the means.

We went knocking on different factories and the costs were too expensive for a new start-up like ours.

"Karim Mahé confirms that to be competitive," you have to automate the processes.

This requires large volumes of production.

When it was launched Lunii was producing between 5,000 and 10,000 parts per year, it was difficult for us to be competitive now that the company needs 200,000 parts, and certainly a lot more next year.

It allows us to align.

"

It must be said that since 2015, the small start-up has grown.

“In 2016, we sold 20,000 pieces,” recalls Igor Krinbarg.

In 2017, we went to 80,000, then 160,000 the following year, 240,000 in 2019 and this year we should be around 300,000.

That's over 700,000 in four years.

»Exponential.

“We really started to develop in 2018, from there we thought it was time to relocate.

We then joined forces with a French design office, KickMaker, which helped us redesign the product, then we went to canvass factories, two in Europe and three in France, and BMS Circuits was unmarked.

It has almost aligned with Chinese products, to within a few euros or even euro cents.

"

"Our fight is to recover companies that have left abroad"

For this, the Bayonnaise plant had to rethink the production of the product with KickMaker for a year and a half.

“In the end, the customer doesn't see any difference, but inside it has nothing to do with it.

For example, where the Chinese needed 14 screws assembled by hand by three to five people, we make the product with four screws assembled with the semi-automatic screwdriver.

From three different electronic cards, we have gone to a single card, which means a single manufacturing process.

This is how we are competitive.

"

If the boss of BMS Circuits is obviously delighted to have overtaken his Chinese competitor, he assures us that “it is not a surprise.

It has become our approach to seek out customers who want to repatriate their production to France.

Last year, out of five new customers, three were won over as part of a relocation.

We are specialized in electronics, and if several companies in the sector have gone to other countries in recent years, our fight today is to recover them in order to bring electronics to life in France.

"

"In France, the processes are slower but more focused"

Lunii, for its part, ensures that it can offer a “more reliable” product, thanks to automation.

In China, we work quickly, we have a product that is ready more easily, because that's their way of doing things.

In France, the processes are slower, but more focused.

Suddenly, we have something more successful.

"

Production on the Bayonne channels started on July 15th, and the “made in France” product has been available from retailers (Oxybul, Fnac, Nature and Découvertes) since October 15th.

“We managed to sell almost all the stock of V1 until September, the rest we recovered and we will use it for after-sales service until the end of the year,” explains Igor Krinbarg.

This box, which looks like a transistor, offers a tree structure of 48 pre-written stories to listen to.

The child chooses a hero, a place, an object, and will find himself according to his choices transported in different universes, in the middle of sirens or pirates.

The new version is offered at the same price as the old one (59.90 euros).

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