Who are we ?

The grandfather of the present CEO created the company in 1946. André AVIO was a multilingual businessman, a tireless globe trotter looking for opportunities through the whole world. André AVIO has been also involved in the incipient NATO. Great admirer of the American army which had just liberated France, he has been inspired for it's company logo by the 82nd airborne division one. The two A came as its own initiales and the threeolors are thoose for both USA and  France flags.

At the turn of the seventies, communications improved a lot and long trading journeys diminished. The company decided to focus on knitting and more specificaly on wrap knit fabric made on straight knitting machines. This technology was booming and led to a lot of businesses, in clothing and in various sectors (planes, cars, hospitals...).

Thursday March 12, 2020, 8 p.m. : French President is officially announcing the covid 19 pandemy to the whole nation. Citizens are discovering with amazement that the country has nothing to face the desaster, no hydro alcoholic gel, no mask, no testing process. Later on, people understood that the hospitals were not able to handle enough reanimation beds. Immediatly, the word "mask" challenged the boss of André AVIO SAS. Mask could be made in different ways but fabric remains very often used. Fabrics, I know! Very quickly, Bertrand AVIO understood that competition with one way chinese masks sold 40 cents of Euro is useless, not qualitative and not good for the environnement.

-Useless because André AVIO SAS cannot compete with far east in terms of quantities and cost.

-Not qualitative because the one way masks do not protect people correctly.

-Not good for the environment because one way masks do not fit with the future Bertrand wishes to leaves to his kids.

The André Avio team gets to work. The objective was clear: to make a robust, comfortable mask, anti-bacterial and reusable 50 times. It took two months between the small seed of the idea and the still fragile plant of the first industrial products. Let's give the floor to Bertrand AVIO to talk about this period:

 

"I spent two crazy months between testing, perfecting models, measuring performance, looking for partners, going back, defining products and doing many trips during the pandemic. First of all, I would like to warmly thank the close staff of my company who supported me and did not count their hours in a difficult period when they had also to do the usual tasks, congratulations to them. I also want to associate the external partners who followed and helped me in this adventure, without them, we certainly would not have gone all the way. I am very proud to have been able to lead this fantastic multidisciplinary team which was 200% mobilized on a citizen, innovative and French project. The result is magnificent "