Grenoble, glove-making capital of the world.
Albert-Pierre Raymond, a young 24-year old mechanic, Hippolyte-Benoît Allègre, an engraver, and Alexandre Guttin, a gilder, form a partnership to use the first patent for a glove fastener.
Hippolyte-Benoît Allègre leaves. The two partners Raymond & Guttin submit the RG trademark, seen to this day on ARaymond™ products.
Raymond & Guttin's first success!
With his fortune made, Albert-Pierre Raymond has the family home built there in the Art Nouveau style (A.Raymond Group's headquarters 100 years later), then a replica for his son Achille, in the Art Déco style.
The legal status of co-entrepreneurs is chosen by Raymond & Guttin to protect and secure the future of the business. Still current in 2015, it demonstrates the Raymond family's commitment to entrepreneurship.
Glove-makers are looking for a more practical system than the sewn-on button and buttonhole, whilst still keeping the look of a traditional button. Albert-Pierre Raymond invents the "new spring stud-fastener" or "press-stud".
Immediate global success.
Alexander Guttin sells his stake to Albert-Pierre Raymond. This transfer marks the birth of the A.Raymond Factory, a family business from that moment on.
It is the beginning of a line of heirs who will all be entrepreneurs and whose first names all begin with the letter A!
To protect the intellectual property rights of the patents covering the invention of the press-stud, Achille Raymond is in charge of setting up the site in Germany with a close colleague, Louis Molinard, who will run the German company up until 1914.
Grand Prix at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris for the corozo press-stud "figurines".
First steps into the automobile industry with shell and upholstery fasteners and especially the invention of the turnstile, the second invention to have global success.
Tribute is unanimously paid to the man and the entrepreneur. The company now employs 400 people in Grenoble and 50 in Lörrach.