Here comes the English translation of the interview :
JPG: Hello, Gaétan Jetté.
GJ: Yes, hello Monsieur Guillaume.
JPG: Gaétan, you’re the founding president of the company GMR Safety, so a company of Quebec origin, so it’s a company that’s been in existence for almost 26 years I believe?
GJ: Yes, absolutely, 26 years old, founded in 96.
JPG: How did you come up with the idea of creating this company?
GJ: In fact, transportation was still a familiar topic in the family. We saw that there was a need for security with a solution that was simple. Obviously, the system as it is today took years to do, but we have a solution today that meets the needs of the market well.
JPG: So you created your company in Quebec, I guess that the development initially took place in North America?
GJ: Yes, mainly, for many years, and by coming to occasional trade shows in France, or by keeping a watch on Germany, in Hanover, we saw that there were beginning to be solutions.
JPG: Okay. What are your products, what do you provide, what’s your offer?
GJ: What we do is secure the loading and unloading operation in the warehouses, so we block the wheels of the truck to prevent it from leaving while there’s a load, so this prevents the forklift from falling to the ground.
JPG: So it’s a piece of metal that fits between the wheels of the truck so that it can’t move, right?
GJ: Exactly, that’s a great answer, that’s exactly it, we block the wheel of the truck to prevent it from leaving, with a patented concept unique in the world that’s mainly composed of a notched plate where we put the chock, and there it blocks the truck very effectively.
JPG: So you’re the one who makes these parts?
GJ: Yes, we make everything in Canada.
JPG: You have a factory?
GJ: We have a brand-new factory, which we just finished building in January of this year, which allows us to release thousands of systems.
JPG: It’s important that you be able to produce yourselves, that is, you can control the quality of the steel that way, that sort of thing?
GJ: Yes, indeed, we control everything, we have a design office, we design our products, we improve them ourselves, we’re in control of the quality from start to finish, up until installation.
JPG: Okay. You’ve also been present in Europe for a few years?
GJ: Yes, we started in Europe in 2014-2015. Today, we have around twenty employees, that’s 14 in France, with the rest spread out for coverage of the European market.
JPG: So you’ve marketed your products to the major players in logistics, logistics service providers, also manufacturers, distributors, etc.?
GJ: Yes, indeed, we’re in all markets, we’re extremely present, large companies like Kuehne+Nagel, XPO Logistics, ID Logistics, but also CDiscount, Leroy Merlin, Boulanger, we’re also in the food industry very much, we’re in all areas in France and elsewhere in Europe.
JPG: So I’m pleased to welcome you to the Supply Chain Village stand right in the middle of the SITL. You also have a stand at SITL, what are you presenting, so do you have anything new, are you innovating in this area?
GJ: Very good question. Indeed, logistics is a rapidly changing market. We’ve seen, particularly during the pandemic, e-commerce has exploded, and vehicles for e-commerce are different from what we traditionally know, like large trailers, semi-trailers. We made a small product adapted to secure LUVs, light utility vehicles, which provide urban transport logistics.
JPG: So that corresponds to an explosion of e-commerce I think, because more and more we’re seeing these small vehicles delivering to a private individual, so it’s also important to be able to secure them.
GJ: We’re very lucky because we have a partnership relationship that we’ve established with our customers and they’re the ones who tell us their needs, their needs are changing, so this year we had three new innovations that we launched: LUV shims, a system for connected trestles, and for the next show in April we’ll also have something else new to present.
JPG: The people who come to see you at the stand, are they people who are concerned about safety in the warehouses, because there are still a lot of accidents that are still very common in warehouses today?
GJ: Yes, there is a lot of what are called “close passes”, they happen in the thousands, they occur continually, there are about fifteen people who die at loading docks, so it’s really a concern of logistics directors, safety directors, but companies today invest a lot in the safety of their employees.
JPG: Typically, operators who can get stuck between the truck and the dock, for example, things like that?
GJ: Okay, good question. In fact, often it’ll be a communication problem, when you type 27, 37, it’s two numbers are next to each other, but it’s not the same door, so there we there can be a risk, and if for example the trucker leaves with the wrong trailer, they can have a serious or even deadly accident.
JPG: Well, thank you Gaétan Jetté for coming to the Supply Chain Village stand to tell us about your GMR Safety company. So if we want to contact you, do you have a website?
GJ: Yes, gmrsafety.com, you can contact us, and we have sales representatives all over Europe, or obviously throughout France, we have total coverage of the country, which I adore by the way, I’m a France lover, and I have the privilege of being able to grow a business here with collaborators and to meet extraordinary people.
JPG: Thanks for coming and have a great show.
GJ: Thank you, Mr. Guillaume.
JPG: See you soon.
Watch the full video interview in French here