A company’s bread and butter

Portrait

Around 4,000 years ago, butter became a basic and important food. It all started, so the story goes, one hot day when a Nomad tied a pouch of milk to his horse’s neck and later found out that the heat and shaking had transformed the milk into a tasty yellow product. Interestingly, modern butter, manufactured and processed by scientific methods, has not changed very much from the earliest product and still plays a pivotal role in our daily lives. Today, France has the highest butter consumption in Europe, with SIMON SAS in Cherbourg as a leading manufacturer of butter machinery.

SIMON’s history dates back to 1856 and is closely connected to Normandy, a region with a predominantly agricultural character. When Mr. Simon founded the company, it first concentrated on welding processes and the production of boilers. Many machines were used by farmers, and as the region was rich in dairy farms, SIMON started working on innovative machinery to make butter.

Due to constant machine improvement, SIMON soon had an excellent reputation at home and abroad. In 1880, it sold its first machine to Great Britain and was honoured with an exportation award on the occasion of the Paris world’s fair of 1900.

An exceptional pioneering spirit has always been a main characteristic of SIMON. In 1950, the company acquired a patent allowing the continuous production of butter, which, back then, was an important innovation. SIMON named the machine La Contimab. Contimab symbolized a real market breakthrough. To satisfy consistently increasing demand, especially in the former Soviet Union, a direct train line to the factory was established.

Today, SIMON is part of the Bretèche group and has 50 employees. Contimab machinery remains the core of its portfolio. Besides, complementing systems are offered. “Our machines are developed to satisfy different needs of the food industry,” explains President Dominique Liuzzo. “Apart from our broad range of butter making machines, among others, we offer machines for the continuous blending of ingredients for the food industry. Our aim has always been to offer more than sophisticated machines. We want to support customers with complete solutions including outstanding services such as modernization, tele assistance or remote maintenance.”

80% of all products are sold abroad. India and Asia in general represent strong markets for SIMON with huge future potential. SIMON’s latest innovation PROFLEX will again improve the butter process – and further strengthen the company’s leading market position.