Camera and metal recycling firm among France’s top-growth companies
Financial newspaper Les Echos publishes a list of the country’s leading firms annually
This year, to mark the 10th year of the rankings, the newspaper has focused on companies’ growth between 2014–2024
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A specialist camera firm has been named France’s best-performing company of the last decade.
Every year, financial newspaper Les Echos publishes a list of the country’s top companies.
It is by no means definitive, as firms themselves choose whether to be included. Many that participate are often start-ups or near start-ups.
This year, to mark the 10th year of the rankings in their present form, the newspaper has focused on companies’ growth between 2014–2024.
To qualify, firms must have achieved sales of at least €100,000 in 2014 and €10million in 2024, be independent, be headquartered in France, and have generated growth mostly organically rather than by acquisitions.
In first place was GT Company, a specialist camera firm based in Chessy (Seine-et-Marne), with an annual average growth rate of 78% since 2015. In the decade 2014–2024, its sales grew from €195,892 to €61.6million.
It entered into partnerships with Kodak and AgfaPhoto – two once-dominant companies that encountered difficulties as digital photography and smartphones advanced – and created digital and instant cameras with a distinctive retro aesthetic, marketed under the Kodak and AgfaPhoto brands.
GT Company also makes digital cameras branded by NASA, the US government space agency.
France is the largest single market with 25% of sales, followed by the rest of Europe with 45%, and 30% in the Asia-Pacific region.
Also headquartered in Chessy is Atrium Capital, in second place. The company specialises in financing rental agreements in the medical and industrial equipment sectors. It recorded average annual growth of 71% over the decade, and now has sales of €35million.
The company said its growth has been fuelled by continual innovation in medical technology and by medical institutions making strategic decisions to lease, rather than purchase, equipment. It is now targeting sales of €50million.
Rounding out the top three was Cyclamen, which recycles non-ferrous metals recovered from the incineration of household waste. Its average annual growth was 63% over the decade and it now has sales of €23million a year.
Following incineration, ashes initially pass beneath magnets that extract ferrous (iron-based) metal waste, after which Cyclamen washes the ashes and sends the remaining material through a series of X-ray machines to separate it into different metals. Mobile units can travel to incineration sites throughout France.
A large proportion of the non-ferrous metal recovered in this manner is aluminium, for which the company operates a specialist trading division.
The company was set up near Montpellier (Hérault) by three engineers in 2012, and is in the process of building a second treatment plant at Millau (Aveyron).
