Caption: Cedric Marmonier, President of Medicos. At the beginning of 2025, if we add the ages of the four industrial units that make up Physicians, the group celebrates its 300th anniversary: 100 years for the plant Izernore (formerly Mino Gaillard), 100 years for the plant chassal (formerly Janvier), 60 years for the plant Milan (formerly CO.VE) and 40 years for the plant Rombach in Alsace (formerly Dinamic Emballages).
Medicos is a group of responsive, financially independent, efficient SMEs with an integration-first organisation and flexible in its industrial and commercial choices (60% customised products / 40% standard products with minimum productions from 5.000 units to over one million units). The Group has an advanced industrial workforce, with over 90 injection moulding machines, from 30 to 350 tonnes, equipped with robots, several rotary machines for the production of glass pipettes and a multitude of assembly and finishing machines.
The circular economy, driving investment and innovation for 22 years
Eco-design, sustainable sourcing, recycling optimization, responsible production… all within the framework of a policy that was initially voluntary and then became mandatory in terms of social and environmental responsibility, without forgetting the implementation of an essential risk management program. As explained by Denis Moiraud, Site Manager“At Medicos, implementing the principles of recyclability and circularity in our design processes is an essential approach to creating products that can be effectively reused or recycled at the end of their life cycle, in particular through the RecyClass label. We rely primarily on packaging laws and regulations (PPWR, SU guidelines…). We strive to create minimalist packaging. This involves reducing weight and thickness, designing packaging with recycled, recyclable, refillable and reusable materials, and assessing the overall footprint of products taking into account the different stages of the life cycle.”
The aim is to move towards 100% recyclable or reusable packaging, reduce the use of fossil materials, develop the use of bio-based materials, promote local sourcing (materials, tools, etc.) and generalise the signing of a code of conduct with our suppliers. “Incorporating recycled materials into our production process is an essential step towards reducing plastic waste and developing the circular economy,” explains Denis Moiraud.
40% standard, 60% customized
Medicos currently markets around 3200 product references per year, 35 million droppers, 40 million perfume caps, 14 different jar formats with a wide range of customizations and… around 300 new products. Exports represent 25% of sales. The product range is balanced between standard and customized products. But Medicos is primarily committed to innovative products.
Prune Thevenin, commercial director, Remember that they are pioneers in eco-design, developing our refillable jars since 2007, long before the regulations came into force. They register an average of three patents per year.
One of its strong points is its patented “Re-CliCK” jar line. With a capacity of 50 ml, the jar is made of glass (PCR option – up to 40%) and the inner jar, which is sealable, is made of RPP, PP. The lid is made of RPP, PP and the lid liner of PE. These three components can be customized (screen printing, hot stamping and pad printing; lacquered or metalized).
They also offer a range of Roll-Ons (diameters 7,5 and 10 / capacities from 5 to 20ml). The caps are made of RPP, PP, the ball carrier is made of PE, the ball is made of stainless steel, glass and the bottle is made of drawn glass or custom-made glass. All these components can be customized with a decoration or finish. The roll-ons can be disassembled and refilled.
In the field of droppers, they offer a Beauty range with smooth caps and a Health range with ribbed caps for capacities from 15 to 100 ml (standard droppers in petroleum-based or sustainable materials with glass pipettes, or in plastic for a dropper that is fully recyclable in the PP chain). A full-service version is also available with bottles in drawn glass, moulded glass or plastic.
They have a range of perfume caps with over 30 different references not counting decorations, as well as a variety of caps for perfume samples. There are many customization options. They also offer a range of spout caps and two-piece twist-off caps (various screw or snap necks, one- or two-piece caps). An overcap is available for certain formats.
To ensure the best possible traceability of their supplies, they are ISCC Plus materials. “We want our products to be easy to disassemble for easy recycling, and we offer mono-material products wherever possible, depending on the packaging required, to facilitate sorting,” adds Prune Thevenin.
Four areas of specialization
Medicos is the result of the merger of four SMEs and four areas of specialisation. The entire process took only twenty-two years. The result is a turnover of 40 million euros and 150 employees.
Elodie Perrot, Plant Manager, talks about the four areas. The first is plastic injection moulding, with more than 92 injection moulding machines of between 30 and 350 tonnes equipped with robots. These are electric presses or hydraulic presses for mono or bi-materials. They are equipped with modules to improve the quality of the injected parts (Active Flow Balance, Active Protect, sequential closures), multi-cavity moulds (closures of cap moulds for service capsules, multi-sequence unscrewing and indexed unscrewing). We implement processes to implement the in-mould labelling process (IML).
“Our second speciality is the production and processing of drawn glass at our plant in Italy. This complex know-how is the result of many years of specific development of our processing machines, which are fine-tuned to control glass thickness and shapes. The manufacturing process requires the development and adjustment of very specific tools for calibration of the nozzles and perfect control of the volume/pump ratio. All our machines are equipped with a vision camera and the feeding of the glass tubes is fully automated to ensure optimal quality and cleanliness, in line with the requirements of the cosmetics and pharmaceutical sectors,” he says.
The third activity is decoration, with different types of finish. Decoration can be carried out on finished parts: natural, mass-coloured, metallised, galvanised and lacquered. There is also screen printing (flat and UV contouring on moulded parts (oval, square, round, etc.), hot stamping (stamping, lamination and contouring on moulded parts (oval, square, round, etc.), pad printing, laser engraving, IML, etc.), not to mention automatic UV lacquering and varnishing machines. With or without in-line injection moulding and final assembly. Finally, screen printing on glass pipettes for graduation or text marking.
The fourth line of business is automation. “We are constantly looking for the latest technological advances in machine equipment and incorporating the latest technological innovations into our processes,” says Elodie Perrot. They have customised machines: “Our latest 3-material 5D printing equipment gives us the ability to develop parts for high-performance automated machines using new generation materials that can withstand intensive use. We manufacture our own automated assembly machines for our droppers, roll-on ball carriers and complex parts, as well as our automated lines for indexed decoration and assembly of our jars and inner pots.”
Finally, Elodie Perrot also highlights the IV4 vision sensors, the latest generation V50 camera, the freedom of design and rapid prototyping.
