Who we are

The story of Vegea

2024 – Launch of stocketik SAS and acquisition of Lorrach's activity

To satisfy a clientele that wants to buy in bulk and without customization, we are creating, with Antoine Gendron, a B2B sales platform, stocketik.com. The success is immediate and allows us to achieve €900,000 in revenue for this new company in its first fiscal year 2024.

At the end of 2024, we also have the opportunity to acquire the activity of the company Trilor / Lorrach, specialized in loyalty gifts in Alsace and the entire Grand Est region.

In a year that is economically and politically turbulent, our consolidated revenue (VEGEA + STOCKETICK) manages to show growth, reaching €15.3 million in revenue with a team of 24 employees.

2023 – Revenue of €15 million

Starting in 2021, we organized ourselves into 3 Business Units: Two are generalists and one is specialized in public markets. This organization, which fosters healthy competition among the salespeople, allows us to develop our activities to reach €15 million in revenue.

2020 – Revenue of €14 million

In our business plan, we had a goal of €14 million in revenue in 2020. Despite the health crisis related to Covid, we managed to achieve this goal, mainly with PPE (personal protective equipment). During this particularly unique year, we had to adapt to meet our objectives and did not resort to partial unemployment at all.

2018 – Revenue of €9 million

What is quite extraordinary in the business of corporate gifts, promotional items, and goodies is both the diversity of products, their multiple uses, and the different types of clients. Indeed, any company, regardless of its size, can use promotional items for communication; from the local cobbler to a multinational. Our client portfolio is, by the way, very eclectic: about one-third large companies, one-third advertising agencies, and one-third SMEs.

Our selection of items is always richer with new products and trendy items! Currently, we have 36,000 promotional items online spread across about 3000 product lines. It is probably the richest offering on the market. And we continue to expand our product ranges by regularly attending professional trade shows such as PSI in Düsseldorf, Germany, or more niche exhibitions and fairs in China. For example, every year, we go to Yiwu, 450 km south of Shanghai. I have been there six times already, and each year, I am always impressed by this El Dorado. You can find all imaginable gadgets and promotional rewards there. Just think of the Exhibition Center at the Porte de Versailles with all its halls. On surface, multiply by 20 then by 5 (number of floors) and you get Yiwu, a permanent exhibition city from which 18,000 containers depart daily to ports around the world! We regularly discover new products or factories with a strong price advantage.

2008 – Revenue of €4.4 million

In July 2008, VEGEA crossed the Seine and moved into 190 m² offices in Saint-Cloud in a house. This place works well for VEGEA and its 8 employees since 2011 marks the crossing of €5 million in revenue.

To respond to your many requests for quotes or questions about your special productions, we have a team of 8 salespeople, all experts in promotional items and corporate gifts. You will have a unique contact with us from the establishment of the commercial proposal to the delivery of your gadgets. I know that you appreciate not being passed around from service to service when you need urgent information. Your salesperson has a direct line and always responds within the hour if they are busy.

Thanks to this organization, over 12,500 clients have trusted us for 14 years. We thank you for your ever-increasing orders of promotional items.

Your growth is exponential since the promotional item as a communication medium is gaining increasing popularity. According to several studies, it is even the 3rd or 4th medium in terms of revenue for your advertising campaigns, after TV and print media and before (or after depending on the studies) radio. The figure for the promotional item and corporate gift sector is estimated at €1.5 billion in France.

But we do not limit ourselves to selling in France, and the share of our exports is growing. They currently take place in Francophone countries: Switzerland, Belgium, Africa.

2012 & 2013 were years of significant growth for Vegea, which has continually developed to satisfy its clients. 2014 confirmed this trend, leading the company to decide to move in June 2014 to more functional premises, still in Saint-Cloud, to allow the company to achieve its largest ambitions and for employees to thrive fully. It was also around this time that Valérie Courson, sales manager, went to London to establish VEGEA in the UK.

2003 – Revenue of €1.1 million

Little by little, we met numerous suppliers of promotional items and goodies who came to enrich our catalog of customizable items. Today, we have a database of about 2500 suppliers spread across the world: half are represented by manufacturers (35% in China, 5% in India, 5% in Turkey, 5% in the Middle East, 30% in France – Long live French manufacturing! -, 20% in the rest of Europe), the other half by wholesale distributors based in France and Europe. The latter allow us to ensure rapid deliveries of promotional items and have product lines that are followed over several years. This is very important for your reorder requests when you have an internal catalog.

For the customization of goodies and promotional gifts, it is done either directly by the manufacturers of promotional items at the time of production or entrusted to subcontractors (screen printers, embroiderers, engravers, tampographers, printers) when we source from our stockists.

1998 – Creation of VEGEA

The promotional item has been a wonderful adventure since May 26, 1998, the date when I created VEGEA with Antoine Gendron (ESC Rouen 1998). We have been friends since we were 15 years old. The story of VEGEA begins in a 7m² cellar at 49 rue Cambronne in Paris in the 15th arrondissement.

This period is a transition for our currency. Without immediately switching to the euro, stocks and bonds are quoted in euros. We then had the idea, with Antoine Gendron, co-founder of the company, to offer banks, wealth management companies, and brokerage firms a new promotional item: personalized calculators that convert francs to euros while displaying their logo. This way, their clients could find it easier.

We thank the Hong Kong Trade Development Council for having greatly contributed to this idea of promotional items and goodies / promotional gifts since it was by flipping through their directory that we decided to embark on the importation of this promotional gadget.

The company then moved to Boulogne Billancourt into a small 20 m² office where I was alone at the helm, Antoine Gendron having decided to leave VEGEA to embark on the IT adventure. I worked alone for two years and launched the website vegea.com in 2000 with a wide choice of promotional items, and its success was rapid. It was one of the first promotional item websites in France. The activity was strongly boosted by the scooter, the eclipse glasses, and the franc/euro converters.

To grow, VEGEA moved in 2001, still in Boulogne, and hired its first employee, a former professional in the promotional item and textile marking sector. The internet catalog could thus be expanded. VEGEA would remain in these offices until 2008 with a staff of 6 people and double-digit annual growth.

We warmly thank you for giving us the chance to pursue a profession in constant evolution.

Benoît Vernon, founder