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07 Jun 2021

Leadership changes at FELCO SA

The family takes on the General Management position once more

Nabil Francis

CEO FELCO SA

The leadership of the world leader in pruning and cutting tools for over 75 years, FELCO SA, is returning to family management as of June 1st, 2021.

Following the resignation of Christophe Nicolet as co-CEO, the Boards of Directors of FELCO SA and FLISCH Holding SA have appointed Nabil Francis as the CEO of FELCO SA. Nabil Francis is married to Christelle Francis-Flisch, granddaughter of the founder. He is a graduate of the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (Civil Engineering) in France, as well as of the ESSEC (MBA) in Paris. Nabil Francis has held several management positions in France, Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Morocco, Bulgaria, and the Philippines where he led a building materials company. The management of FELCO SA is thus back in family hands.

Stéphane Poggi, the current Co-CEO of FELCO SA alongside Christophe Nicolet, will become COO – Chief Operating Officer.

In the eyes of the family shareholders represented on the Board of Directors of FLISCH Holding SA, a return to the involvement of an experienced family member with a strong entrepreneurial spirit at the head of operations justifies keeping the Group exclusively under family ownership for the long term and anchored in the Jura region. The new organization will have no impact on employment at the company.

Departure of Christophe Nicolet - Co-CEO of FELCO SA

After assuring the general management of the company for almost ten years, Christophe Nicolet now wishes to reorient his professional career. Christophe Nicolet was the first CEO appointed outside of the Flisch-Perrin family. He replaced Laurent Perrin, who took over the distribution of the North American market. Christophe Nicolet applied his experience and expertise to improve the industrial capabilities of FELCO SA, while respecting the environment and maintaining product sustainability.
He greatly contributed to the successful merger of FELCO SA & FELCO Motion SA in July 2020 and has effectively managed FELCO SA through the pandemic crisis.

About FELCO and FLISCH Holding

Based in Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (canton of Neuchâtel), FELCO SA is a global leader in professional pruning shears and cable cutters. The Swiss company was founded in 1945 by Félix Flisch. Still in family hands today, it employs about 200 people and produces more than one million manual tools and 200,000 industrial tools each year, 90% of which are exported to more than 100 countries, notably through six distribution subsidiaries (France, Germany, Benelux, South Africa, Canada, and the USA) and a large network of importers and authorized distributors.

FELCO SA is an entity of the FLISCH Group. FLISCH Holding SA is still exclusively in the hands of the founder's descendants and, in addition to FELCO SA, also owns Prétat SA in Cornol (JU), a forging specialist which manufactures the aluminium handles of FELCO pruning shears, amongst other products.

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