Who we are

The story of Vegea

Creation date 1998

The advertising object has been a great adventure since May 26, 1998, when I created VEGEA with Antoine Gendron (ESC Rouen 1998). We've been friends since we were 15. The story of VEGEA begins in a 7m2 cellar, 49 rue Cambronne in Paris in the 15th district.

This period is a transition for our currency. Without immediately switching to the euro, stocks and bonds are listed in euros. We then had the idea, with Antoine Gendron, co-founder of the company, to offer banks, asset management companies and brokerage firms a new advertising object: personalized calculators that convert francs into euros by affixing them their logo. This would make it easier for their customers to find their way around.

Share capital 87 100 €

We would like to thank the Honk Kong Trade Development Council for having strongly contributed to this idea of ​​advertising object and goodies / promotional gift since it is by leafing through their directory that we have decided to embark on the import of this advertising gadget.

The company then moved to Boulogne Billancourt in a small office of 20 m2 where I was alone in charge, Antoine Gendron having decided to leave VEGEA to embark on the IT adventure. I worked alone for two years and launched the vegea.com website in 2000 with a large selection of promotional items and its success was rapid. It is one of the leading advertising object sites in France. The activity will be strongly boosted by the scooter, eclipse glasses and franc / euro converters.

To expand, VEGEA moved in 2001, still in Boulogne, and recruited its first employee, a former member of the promotional products and textile marking sector. The internet catalog can thus expand. VEGEA will remain in these offices until 2008 with a workforce of 6 and annual double-digit growth.

CA 2003 1.1 million euros

Little by little, we meet many suppliers of promotional items and goodies who come to expand our catalog of customizable items. Today, we have a database of around 2,500 suppliers spread across the world: half are represented by manufacturers (35% in China, 5% in India, 5% in Turkey, 5% in the Middle East , 30% in France - Long live French manufacturing -, 20% in the rest of Europe), the other half by wholesalers-distributors based in France and Europe. These allow us to ensure fast deliveries of promotional items and to have product lines followed over several years. This is very important for your restocking orders when you have an internal catalog.

For the personalization of goodies and promotional gifts, it is carried out either directly by the manufacturers of promotional items at the time of production, or entrusted to subcontractors (screen printers, embroiderers, engravers, pad printers, printers) when we get our supplies from our storers.

2008 turnover 4.4 million euros

In July 2008, VEGEA crossed the Seine and moved into a 190 m2 office in Saint-Cloud in a house. This place is a success for VEGEA and its 8 employees since 2011 marks the crossing of 5 million euros in turnover.

To answer your numerous requests for quotes or your questions about your special products, we have a team of 8 sales representatives, all experts in advertising material and business gifts. You will have a single point of contact with us from the establishment of the business proposal to the delivery of your gadgets. I know you appreciate not being wandered from duty to duty when you need urgent information. Your sales representative has a direct line and always answers you within an hour if they are busy.

Thanks to this organization, more than 12,500 customers have trusted us for 14 years. We thank you for your ever increasing orders of promotional items.

And your growth is exponential since the promotional object as a communication medium is increasingly successful. According to several studies, it is even the 3rd or 4th medium in terms of turnover for your advertising campaigns, after TV ads and print media and before (or after depending on the studies) radio. The turnover of the advertising object and business gift sector is estimated at 1.5 billion euros in France.

But we are not content to sell in France and the share of our exports is growing. They are currently taking place in French-speaking countries: Switzerland, Belgium, Africa.

2012 & 2013 were years of consistent growth for Vegea which has continued to develop to satisfy its customers. 2014 confirming this trend, the company decided to move in June 2014 to more functional premises, still in Saint-Cloud, in order to allow the company to achieve its strongest ambitions and employees to flourish there. fully. It was during this same period that Valérie Courson, sales manager, left for London to set up VEGEA in the United Kingdom.

2018 sales 9.0 million euros

What is quite extraordinary in the business of corporate gifts, promotional items and goodies is the diversity of products, their multiple uses and the different types of customers. Indeed, any company, whatever its size, can have recourse to promotional objects to communicate; both the shoemaker around the corner and a multinational. Our client portfolio is also very diverse: around a third of large companies, a third of advertising agencies and a third of SMEs.

Our selection of articles is always richer with novelties and trendy objects! Currently, we have 36,000 online promotional items spread across around 3000 product lines. This is probably the richest offering on the market. And we continue to expand our product lines by regularly visiting trade shows such as PSI Düsseldorf in Germany or more confidential exhibitions and fairs in China. Every year, for example, we go to Yiwu, 450 km south of Shanghai. I have been there six times already and every year I am always impressed with this Eldorado. There are all the gadgets and advertising bonuses imaginable. Think for a moment of the Parc des Expositions at Porte de Versailles with all of its halls. On the surface, multiply by 20 then by 5 (number of floors) and you get Yiwu, a permanent exhibition city from which 18,000 containers leave for ports around the world every day! We regularly discover new products or factories with a strong price advantage.

Staff 27 employees

Finally, depending on the object, the use is very different. Large brand or luxury gifts such as cigar humidors or Cross pens will be offered more as end-of-year gifts, advertising textiles are more available to dress company employees, small printed gadgets are used for campaigns large-scale communication such as a product launch or a promotion, inflatable structures are used to improve signage and visibility of companies, ecological gifts give credibility to your eco-responsible approach, personalized pens are an advantageous replacement for supplies offices ordered by the general services for the same or even lower price, the hooded sweatshirt is a delight for high school students (who proudly display the name of their school) and sports associations, mayors communicate with their citizens with parking discs (printed with a photo for example), airlines order kits toilets allowed in the cabin.

In short, you will understand, each range of products has several possible destinations.

We warmly thank you for giving us the chance to practice a constantly evolving profession.

Benoît Vernon, founder