The brand, based in the Oise department, hopes to sell even more tables with the Paris Games. And exceed 80,000 sales per year worldwide.
Published on 04/13/2024 11:33
Reading time: 5 min Competition ping-pong table manufactured by the Cornilleau brand, a company located in Oise. (CORNILLEAU)
You might as well get your feet wet straight away and settle the debate: ping-pong or table tennis? If the first term historically relates to leisure activities and the second to the sporting domain, the distinction now seems obsolete. “Today we say ping”, even among the pros, explains Michel Zany, CEO of the Cornilleau brand, world leader in the sale of ping-pong tables, with 80,000 units sold each year worldwide.
An order for 300 tables from BHV
For the origins, we have to go back to 1948, at the end of the war, with the creation of Emile Cornilleau’s carpentry. But the real beginnings came 20 years later, in 1969, when the BHV, the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville, in Paris, ordered 300 ping-pong tables from the craftsman and his son Pierre. Challenge met and the adventure begins.
At the end of the 80s, it was another chapter, just as decisive. “Technologies and consumer demands had evolved,” specifies Michel Zany, the tables are now designed to play outdoors, and no longer just indoors.
Sales thanks to the Olympic Games and the Lebrun brothers
Today, the tables are still designed in the Oise factories. With subcontractors less than 200 kilometers away. The only departure from made in France: the steel is imported from Belgium, Germany or the Netherlands.
With the 2024 Paris Olympics, Cornilleau knows that the order book will swell among individuals. Thanks in particular to the growing notoriety of the Lebrun brothers, the two rising stars of ping. Cornilleau has in the past associated himself with big names like Jacques Secutin and Jean-Philippe Gatien. And continues today with Simon Gauzy. Working with the Lebruns would be a plus. “But they are highly coveted by all brands.” recognizes Michel Zany.
