Marcel Menges

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When I started with privatization, my partner Vláďa Procházka and I knew that our equipment, plasma nitriding and one PVD coating machine, would not be enough for us to repay the loan from privatization. So, I remembered my French, which had not been maintained since college, and went to the SAFED company in Délemont. I have known this company since the days of socialism, because we wanted know-how from them for mesh belt furnaces. I arranged a meeting with SAFED CEO Laurent Favarger. And when I got there, strangely enough, another cheerful person was sitting at the table, a Frenchman, the director of Fours BMI, Jean-Pierre Souchard.

Jean-Pierre Souchard, CEO of Fours BMI, our partner and teacher

And so, word gave word, no papers, and when we acquired property rights to operate in Liberec Hanychov, I invited them as partners to our HT-PROGRES. And then it was clear. The first vacuum quenching and tempering furnace and a new part of our business. And since we were novices in the field, the first decision was – you will go to Pusignan for training.

At the time, Pusignan belonged to the showcase of what was then a chain of commercial heat treatment shops in France, the HIT group owned by Mr. Philippe Le François. And since it was close to Fours BMI, it was here that a whole range of innovative ovens from this company were placed. Vacuum, plasma, PVD…. We have to remember that the year was 1993 and everything was just beginning for us.

Pusignan was ruled by Marcel Menges. He was the person who built the system here, to a large extent then copied to Bodycote Liberec. He didn’t have time for me, after all, that’s usually how it is in commercial heat treatment shops. But I had a completely free hand, so I spent the whole 14 days in the hall, with the furnace operators, and with my archaic French I tried to get everything that would be needed to start the vacuum heat treatment plant.

It was a good school and to this day I think that without this experience HT-PROGRES would never have succeeded. Then many years passed and Marcel completely disappeared from my life.

Sometime in 2012/2013, however, Jan Elwart, then president of CEG Group, approached me if I would like to participate in the development of the ERP system for the entire Bodycote group. I nodded at that, and since everyone who had some idea about the management and organization of the commercial heat treatment plants was nominated here, I met Marcel here again.

We were united not only by the past, but also by the fact that we were one of the few from non-English speaking countries. And so, we founded a Czech-French team together, and in the evenings, we were talking together and came up with a whole series of improvements. And I really enjoyed it, because the French language was always very close to me, and so was their French mentality. Marcel was a very good companion, intelligent, funny, and his experience in the heat treatment services in France and with Navision was invaluable.

This lasted until 2017, when Marcel decided to take a retirement to devote himself to his large family and his grandchildren. And so, one of the last sessions of our ERP team was deliberately directed to Lyon, not only because of our tasks, but above all to say goodbye to Marcel. His contribution to the success of Bodycote is immeasurable. But it was lucky for me that I met this thinker of the organization of life in heat treatment shops already in 1993