A finalist in the INPI Trophies in the "Export" category, Infaco was the first family business in the world to manufacture electric pruning shears, back in 1985. Today, the company distributes its tools to winegrowers, olive growers, arboriculturists and landscapers in over forty-five countries around the world.
Meet Davy Delmas, the company's director.
Davy Delmas: It all started in the basement of my grandparents' petrol station. My father, Daniel Delmas, was a budding inventor and in 1984 his winegrower friends in the Gaillac area asked him to help them with their tendonitis. He developed the Electrocoup, the world's first electric pruning shears, which were to revolutionise the tedious job of pruning vines, which involved around a million cuts a season! The INFACO adventure began in the winter of 1984-1985, when his innovation was launched on the market to great acclaim from professionals.
D.D.: One of the main reasons our innovations perform so well is that they are collective. We draw inspiration from design thinking [1] methods to make our innovation process efficient: we don't work alone in our corner, but by creating a climate of creativity, both with our customers and our industrial partners. Everything is based on a long-term relationship, and capitalising on experience is fundamental.
[1] It's a design approach modelled on that of designers, centred on the user and their needs.
D.D.: Industrial protection is one of our core concerns. All our products currently on the market are protected by one or more patents in force internationally. This is a real barrier to entry for our competitors, enabling us to maintain our technological lead and our commercial advantages. A case in point is our latest innovation - the only one of its kind in the world! - which increases the safety of operators during cutting operations.
As well as technology, we also protect the design of each product by registering models and our image with the protected INFACO brand.
D.D.: The INPI has helped us to strengthen our patent filing strategy thanks to the intellectual property diagnostic. In fact, we were made aware of the importance of carrying out prior art searches right from the start of our projects, to ensure that we are free to exploit and decide whether or not it would be appropriate to file a patent application.
We have also strengthened our ability to capitalise on experience with the help of the signed laboratory notebook, a veritable tool for proving possession of knowledge, which proved useful in a recent case involving a digital innovation.
Finally, the INPI is helping us to coordinate our intellectual property more effectively with the legal requirements for employee inventions.
D.D.: The repairability and maintenance of our tools are built in right from the design stage. This is a real guarantee of quality and durability. But dealing with the obsolescence of components, particularly in the field of electronics, is also a real challenge that we take up every day. In fact, we are the only manufacturer in the world today to guarantee an after-sales service for equipment over 25 years old. This quest for performance and longevity has led us to develop unique product designs, many of which are patented.
D.D.: Satisfying the customer-user has been our leitmotiv for 40 years! To achieve this, we strive to design tools that are ever more efficient, lightweight, fast and secure. Our main objective is to make the work of professionals easier. Internally, for our employees, we want to preserve our authentic family values, despite the company's growth and its position as market leader.
D.D.: Pioneering, excellence, global!
