25/09/2023
LEBON International S.à.r.l
LEBON, a 50-year history
The LEBON story started in 1973, and all our teams have played their part in it ever since. From our workshops in Marchiennes to our factories in Calcutta and Ahmedabad, LEBON has left its mark on the world of PPE.
The LEBON Group is much more than just a family business, uniting teams across the world around a single theme: protecting people in the workplace.
The story began in Pecquencourt, in northern France, in the family home of Gilbert and Jeannette LEBON, our CEO Fabrice LEBON’s parents. André LEBON, Gilbert’s father, was a master tanner of cowhide, sheep hide and exotic leathers. From this initial trade, Gilbert and Jeannette had an idea to create a new activity using this raw material. From then on, the idea was to create protective gloves for the industrial market. Gilbert imagined and designed the first products in the Pecquencourt workshop, where he would repeat the same process time and time again: creating, testing and putting together prototypes. Jeannette would sew and assemble the gloves as instructed by Gilbert.
After a few years, production was increasing and the costs of production in France became higher than importing Asian products.
At the time, the company opted for a strategic move, importing a certain number of leather gloves to ensure its survival. French production methods were kept exclusively for more technical products, including technical textile gloves, a newly emerging product at the time, and cut- and heat-resistant protection sleeves. In 1989 Fabrice LEBON came on board and sought to expand the business with new products.
At the turn of the century, a new, innovating product emerged in the form of seamless gloves, knitted with state-of-the-art Japanese knitting machines. But how was that possible? This Japanese cutting-edge technology was the future, but Europe didn’t have the raw materials or machinery to use it. Investment in Asia had become imperative. India became the cornerstone of this new adventure. Three dozen knitting machines were purchased. The Indian workshops started knitting cotton, polyamide and aramid gloves… The group was growing year on year, buying more and more knitting machines in the process.
In 2005, the company created the Research and Development department to deploy our own PU gloves. This period saw the emergence of “Palm fit” gloves, which originally came from Japan and were brand new to the market. This is how the Clean PU® technology was born, designed using a patented and responsible system. The first LEBON dipped gloves were produced and equipped with Clean PU® technology, the forefront of the company and the first major development in the market.
In 2015, to guarantee its growth, the LEBON Group decided to set up a third production site entirely dedicated to PU soaking. Industrial development was still focussed on product manufacturing and the global demand for gloves was exponential. This new site is also ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and SA8000 certified.
Industrial growth is still focussed on product manufacturing with an annual production of 15.1 million pairs of protective gloves on this site alone.
Combining strength, durability and comfort, and Clean PU®-coated, the Active Sense range was launched in 2019. These gloves had greater abrasion resistance than your classic PU glove, representing a real breakthrough in the market.
Unit 4 was set up in 2022 to manufacture leather-related products, particularly for firefighters and more administrative roles.
Expanding also meant preparing for the future, furthering the group’s development by integrating new nitrile technologies into our products, with new product ranges emerging in 2023.
Exhibitor Data Sheet
The LEBON Group is much more than just a family business, uniting teams across the world around a single theme: protecting people in the workplace.
The story began in Pecquencourt, in northern France, in the family home of Gilbert and Jeannette LEBON, our CEO Fabrice LEBON’s parents. André LEBON, Gilbert’s father, was a master tanner of cowhide, sheep hide and exotic leathers. From this initial trade, Gilbert and Jeannette had an idea to create a new activity using this raw material. From then on, the idea was to create protective gloves for the industrial market. Gilbert imagined and designed the first products in the Pecquencourt workshop, where he would repeat the same process time and time again: creating, testing and putting together prototypes. Jeannette would sew and assemble the gloves as instructed by Gilbert.
After a few years, production was increasing and the costs of production in France became higher than importing Asian products.
At the time, the company opted for a strategic move, importing a certain number of leather gloves to ensure its survival. French production methods were kept exclusively for more technical products, including technical textile gloves, a newly emerging product at the time, and cut- and heat-resistant protection sleeves. In 1989 Fabrice LEBON came on board and sought to expand the business with new products.
At the turn of the century, a new, innovating product emerged in the form of seamless gloves, knitted with state-of-the-art Japanese knitting machines. But how was that possible? This Japanese cutting-edge technology was the future, but Europe didn’t have the raw materials or machinery to use it. Investment in Asia had become imperative. India became the cornerstone of this new adventure. Three dozen knitting machines were purchased. The Indian workshops started knitting cotton, polyamide and aramid gloves… The group was growing year on year, buying more and more knitting machines in the process.
In 2005, the company created the Research and Development department to deploy our own PU gloves. This period saw the emergence of “Palm fit” gloves, which originally came from Japan and were brand new to the market. This is how the Clean PU® technology was born, designed using a patented and responsible system. The first LEBON dipped gloves were produced and equipped with Clean PU® technology, the forefront of the company and the first major development in the market.
In 2015, to guarantee its growth, the LEBON Group decided to set up a third production site entirely dedicated to PU soaking. Industrial development was still focussed on product manufacturing and the global demand for gloves was exponential. This new site is also ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and SA8000 certified.
Industrial growth is still focussed on product manufacturing with an annual production of 15.1 million pairs of protective gloves on this site alone.
Combining strength, durability and comfort, and Clean PU®-coated, the Active Sense range was launched in 2019. These gloves had greater abrasion resistance than your classic PU glove, representing a real breakthrough in the market.
Unit 4 was set up in 2022 to manufacture leather-related products, particularly for firefighters and more administrative roles.
Expanding also meant preparing for the future, furthering the group’s development by integrating new nitrile technologies into our products, with new product ranges emerging in 2023.
Exhibitor Data Sheet