Jean ROGERO, the founder of APEM
The history of APEM started at the will of one man, Jean Rogero. Jean Rogero's goal was to meet the needs of a post-war France, facing the immense challenge of reconstruction.
In the 30 years to follow, Mr. Rogero succeeded in giving his business international recognition, while keeping control of almost all aspects of production.Since conception, the core goals remain unchanged: offer one of the widest ranges of quality human machine interface products to a broad international customer base.
Jean ROGERO was born in Nice in the early 1910’s. Some years later, he joined his father in Lorraine (North East of France), where he passed two exams in mechanics and electricity. Second World War led him to Castelsarrasin, a town in the South West of France.Hosted by the Clary family in Montauban, he met the woman who was to become his wife, Jacqueline Clary. He then started to work for the firm Bouyer, before creating his own factory in 1952.
Due to the Marshall Plan initiated by the United States for European countries’ post-war reconstruction, France was flooded with American products.
But for repairs, spare parts or new products had to be ordered on the other side of the Atlantic.
Delivery times were long and prices were high.
To remedy this problem, Jean Rogero decided to produce his own switches. Similar in size and operation to American products, the products succeeded and in 1946, Jean Rogero applied for the first patent, in collaboration with his associate, Mr Salomon.
The first company was created in 1952 under the name of APR - Appareillage Professionnel Radioélectrique (Professional Radioelectric Equipment).
The company was located in Montpezat-de-Quercy, in premises belonging to Jean Rogero's wife’s family.
Jacqueline was involved in the company’s activity, mainly as human resources and management.
Jean Rogero recruited qualified staff locally. The organization was vertical, from machines to components almost everything was manufactured internally.
Thanks to the application of international standards and the numerous contacts of his new business partner, Mr Rosenheimer, products sold well in export markets.
Increased business led to the construction of a new factory in Montpezat. Then, a second plant is opened in Caussade in 1971 under the name of APEM to satisfy the demand for miniature electronic switches.
The first 11000 and 12000 series switches were produced in Caussade and still produced here today!.
As early as 1976, the company began a strategy of international development and successively created four subsidiaries in Europe.
In the early 1980’s, APR and APEM were acquired by the MORS Group.
At that time, Jean Rogero resigned his position as General Manager but would continue working for the company as a consultant until his passing in 1987.
