Case study :

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Peugeot pepper mills

Introduction

Peugeot is a company which is born in 1810, in Doubs (East of France). It has been launched by two brothers, Jean-Pierre and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot. Initially it was a steel foundry. In 1818 they registered a patent for manufacturing tools and saws in particular. The first mill was for coffee and it was created in 1840. The lion trademark appeared in 1850 on the different tools, and it was registered in 1858. It symbolizes the quality of the brand.

The first pepper mill appeared thirty four years after the coffee one, in 1874. It was called the “Z” model. A main attempt of innovation occurred in 1930 with the first electric coffee mill. They launched the final model in 1952 which was more useful. It corresponds to the end of the hand-ground coffee mills. Then they constantly extended their range with several mills.

In 1996 they reached a high level of sales with one million mills all over the world. The year after the first electric pepper mill was created, the model “Laval” in three colours: black, white and blue.

In 2003 Peugeot registered two patents for salt and pepper mills. Then a high number of innovations were put on the market.
Presentation of the company

In 2006 PSP is the world leader in the production of salt and pepper mills with a turnover of 25 millions and 3 millions items sold. The headquarters is in the Doubs, as the original company in 1810. 84% of the capital is held by Jean-Claude Fornage and the remaining 16% is held by the Peugeot family. They reached the world leader position in production of electric pepper and salt mills in less than ten years.

In 1998 the growth accelerated because of the takeover of the firm. The export market is linked to this acceleration. The efficiency of the marketing strategy is the source of the growth on the French market. This strategy was applied to the export market in the early 2000’s. The company has two main