The company now belongs mainly to the four French cement producers (Lafarge, Holcim, Calcia and Vicat), which should ensure the consistency of their product.
All strength tests made by cement producer laboratories, but also building and public works laboratories are carried out with their sand, became the European reference on the subject.
The company has diversified into reference cements and glass beads for road tests. Manufacturing is subject to rigorous standards. The company is certifed ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
The history dates back to 1910. The founder is René Feret, an engineer from the French Public and Road administration in charge of finding deposits of sand for testing cement with measures on mortar. He explores all the beaches of France and it is in Leucate he finds the ideal sand. It was necessary to have a constant sand and representative to test the strength of all the cements. The deposit with a perfect grain size is precisely the range of the one available on Mouret beach. Near the Barcarès, it becomes too coarse, near Port La Nouvelle, too fine. Initially, everything is done in a traditional way. An officer of the DDE came on a small boat to load sandbags weighing 50 kg, then on truck to store them in Port La Nouvelle. With Mr. Dat then his children, taking the production in hand, it quickly became a small industry, but all was done home in a shed. In 1987, the four French cement producers take most of the company's shares and they entrust it to a manager, André Ginestet responsible for providing modernism and rigour. In 1994, the structure became too small and moves locally, in the “zone artisanale” of Leucate, and became automated. Once collected, the sand is left to open air for at least a year to be washed by rain and clear salt out of it. Then it is dried, sieved, sorted, weighed before being reconstituted and packaged in small bags of 1350 kg, the dose for each test. The recipe is invariable and monitored regularly by the laboratory of Paris who is an authority on the subject. One million bags, up to 1 400 tons of sand, leave all year round the world to achieve these famous tests; 20% in France, 40% in Europe and 40% in the rest of the world, particularly in the Middle East, Near East, Africa, Eastern Europe and some Asian countries.
Caroline Lemaître (News paper l’Indépendant)