13.07.2006

The passing of a special lady

With all of the hustle and bustle of Intermat, SED and a busy spring period for the industries we cover, we completely missed the sad passing of Madame Andreé Braud, age 96. Mother of Marcel Braud, grandmother of current chief executive Marcel Claude Braud, and a major participant in the growth of Manitou.
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The late Madame Andreé Braud

Andreé Braud must have been a very special lady, she was widowed when her husband, Marcel Braud senior, was shot and killed on the day American troops liberated Acenis - August 5th 1944.

The young widow, was left with a son Marcel junior, only 13 at the time, and a 13 month old daughter- Jacqueline. Wishing to continue her husband's secret war time engineering work on cranes, and concrete block machines, she formed the Company Braud Mecanique Generale, the company that effectively became Manitou, although the Manitou name did not come into being until 1958.
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An advert for the young company

At the same time she continued to run the agricultural seed and feed business that she and her husband had founded before the war.

In 1953 Mme Braud had the foresight to bring managerial back up and support into the business in the form of Henri Faucheux, a tough manager who took a 25 percent share in the business which was renamed Braud et Faucheux.

It was an astute move, Faucheux helped form the young Marcel Braud, ensuring that he got to know every job in the company by doing it, a perfect education for when he eventually took over the day to day running of the business, and the rest is history.
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Andreé Braud at the Nantes fair in 1949

Clearly Mme Andreé Braud as head of the Braud family, was a very strong and special person, we are sorry to have been so tardy with the news.