Sammode, a century of history
Since its creation in 1927, Sammode has never ceased to create and improve its lighting fixtures, acquiring over the years a unique reputation as an independent, demanding manufacturer that always listens to its customers.
Genesis of the company: the electrification of French homes
Founded in October 1927 in Châtillon-sur-Saône by Louis Lemaire, with his first desk lamps for the administration.
In October, Louis Lemaire founds the Société d’Application des Méthodes MODernes d’Éclairage électrique (SAMMODE) in Châtillon-sur-Saône, on the borders of the Vosges, Haute-Saône and Haute-Marne regions. Since the end of the 19th century, France has been undergoing electrification, with the aim of providing electric lighting for homes, government offices and production facilities. M. Malcailloz, a Parisian engineer, was the company’s first director, succeeded a few years later by Henri Clout. One of Sammode’s bestsellers was the desk lamp for the administration, renowned for its robustness and simplicity.
Moving to Paris: a springboard for industry
The relocation of our head office to Paris (boulevard Richard Lenoir) strengthens our relations with major companies and government agencies.
Sammode’s head office moves from rue Compans to boulevard Richard Lenoir, still in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, where it remains until 1982. With its headquarters in Paris, the company was better able to negotiate contracts with major players in industry and government, and to coordinate its sales intermediaries, who travelled the length and breadth of France with Sammode catalogs. In the difficult years that followed, the family business focused its production on industrial lighting and technical services, gradually abandoning domestic decorative lighting. Another successful Sammode product: the enamelled cast-iron porthole, particularly resistant and efficient.
Renaissance industrielle edited by Jacques Gagnez
Refocusing on high-durability technical lighting for major industrial customers.
Sammode loses its founder, Louis Lemaire, and its CEO, Henri Clout. Jacques Gagnez, Louis Lemaire’s son-in-law, takes over the family business. He decided to refocus production on high-performance, long-life functional lighting fixtures, qualities that had made Sammode’s reputation up to now, always followed by its major industrial customers. To meet demand for luminaires with fluorescent tubes, a press brake is acquired. This strategy of refocusing on resistant, high-end technical lighting bears fruit, thanks in particular to the help of sales consultant Lucien Hanicotte, who had introduced Sammode to the Dunkirk steelworks.
The success of TFS “e” hermetically sealed fluorescent lamps
Development of TFH/TFS, compliance with European standards, and modernization of equipment under Thierry Gagnez.
Building on the success of its hermetically sealed fluorescent tubes (TFH) in harsh environments (mines, steelworks, SNCF, power stations, refineries, etc.), Sammode stepped up its development and became the first French manufacturer to design and mass-produce a lighting fixture that complies with the new European safety standards. This safety-enhanced TFH, known as the TFS “e”, was a real hit with industries with classified installations. In 1979, Thierry Gagnez took over from his father. He pursued the same strategy, capitalizing on the company’s top-of-the-range know-how and the potential of its robust, resistant tubular luminaires. Tooling was gradually and systematically modernized, with the acquisition of a new CNC lathe in 1984.
Reconstruction and relaunch after the 1985 fire
A fire destroys the Châtillon-sur-Saône factory; reconstruction revives business and allows a return to architectural lighting.
On November 16, a fire destroyed the historic factory in Châtillon-sur-Saône. The shareholders decided to rebuild everything in the town and to renew the tools and equipment: when the teams moved into the new production site a year later, Sammode was well on the way to modernity. The company soon made a successful return to architectural lighting, equipping the Grande Halle de la Villette and then, in 1994, participating in the lighting of the Grande Bibliothèque Nationale de France François Mitterrand, at the request of Dominique Perrault and Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost. At the same time, Sammode confirmed its status as a specialist in industrial lighting by exporting its luminaires to Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, etc.), as well as to the Middle East and Africa through turnkey deliveries to petrochemical plants and seawater desalination plants.
International openness and diversification of applications
Export to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and construction of key installations (nuclear power plants, tunnels, TGV maintenance workshops, parking lots, etc.).
The company’s success is accelerating in all its fields of application: industry, agrifood, public infrastructure and architectural buildings. This development is based on a constant policy of product improvement and the design of new solutions, adapted to the growing demands of our customers. The company’s active participation in the lighting renovation of France’s nuclear power plants illustrates Sammode’s expertise in designing technical lighting solutions with high added value, functionality and sustainability. Partnerships have been forged with major industrial players to equip their specific facilities (inspection pits for SNCF high-speed trains, tunnels, parking lots, etc.).
Fourth generation: Emmanuel Gagnez and maintaining the family identity
Management taken over in 2009 by Emmanuel Gagnez, with a commitment to independence, excellence and sustainability
In 2009, Emmanuel Gagnez, who had joined Sammode in 2003, took over the management of the family business from his father. In Châtillon-sur-Saône, the teams have succeeded one another, generation after generation, giving Sammode an exceptional stability, marked by a unique loyalty and attachment to a company that is still independent and renowned for its rigorous design and manufacture of lighting fixtures.
A new era: Sammode enters the world of design
The start of the collaboration with Normal Studio in 2014 marks a turning point. Sammode Studio was born, affirming a desire to bring together technical rigor and aesthetic rigor.
Some bends are history-making. The one in 2014 was just such a move. That year, Sammode entrusted its artistic direction to Normal Studio – the duo formed by Éloi Chafaï and Jean-François Dingjian – and resolutely opened up to the world of design. Their vision, which is both rooted in use and attentive to essential shapes, finds an immediate echo in the brand’s industrial DNA. This was also the birth of Sammode Studio, a showcase for a new ambition: to design technical lighting fixtures that enter interiors with the obviousness of the right object. To bring this vision to the home, an e-shop was launched at the same time. The brand enters a new era, without denying the previous one.
A research center dedicated to sustainable innovation
The Sammode Research & Innovation Center has a clear ambition: to push back the limits of performance through innovation, by testing each luminaire under extreme conditions, in the service of reliability and technical mastery.
In Lamotte-Beuvron, in the Sologne region of France, true to the spirit of exacting standards that has driven Sammode since its origins, the company is inaugurating its own research center in 2019: the Sammode Research & Innovation Center. A veritable laboratory of exacting standards, the SRIC laboratory embodies a vision of progress based on technical rigor, the endurance of materials and the intelligence of light. Here, all the brand’s luminaires are tested, measured and put through their paces under the most extreme conditions – humidity, thermal shock, vibration, electromagnetic interference – in the service of performance and durability. The center strengthens the link between technological innovation and industrial culture, at the crossroads of the laboratory and the field, with a focus on transparency, precision and excellence.
A centenary true to the brand’s pioneering spirit
In 2027, Sammode is preparing to celebrate a hundred years of inventive continuity between industry, architecture and design, true to its vision based on sustainability and performance.
A century after its foundation, Sammode is about to celebrate its centenary. Far from being a finishing line, this date symbolizes a new beginning: that of a company that has never ceased to combine industry, architecture and design. Since 1927, light has been conceived not as a mere function, but as a technical, aesthetic and sustainable response to real-life uses. In 2027, Sammode celebrates this faithful and inventive continuity – a rare balance between heritage and projection, know-how and pioneering spirit.
