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Fichet-Bauche is a brand of safes and vaults with its origins in France. It specialises in products which offer certified burglary protection and/or fire protection.

The brand is widely sold and marketed in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and French-speaking parts of Africa.

Fichet-Bauche is a brand owned by the Gunnebo Security Group.

The Fichet company
Born 7 February 1799 in Etrepilly, France, Alexandre Fichet opened a locksmiths in Paris in 1825 at the age of 26. He registered his first patent in 1829 for a safety lock and further patents followed in 1834 and 1836.

Shortly after, Fichet set up a small workshop in Paris and began expanding into the manufacture of safes. In 1840, he made his first modern fire safe made entirely of steel and using his now renowned, Fichet lock and key. As production outgrew the workshop, Fichet built a factory in Monceau in Paris, followed by a second and third in Lyon and Marseille.

Fichet died in 1862 at the age of 63 and the business changed hands frequently from Loius and Apolline Bonnet, to Monsieur Charlier, manager of the workshops, and then to businessmen, Monsieur Guénot and Monsieur Pinot.

Nevertheless, the business contined to grow. In 1879, the Fichet company built its first bank vault room with rentable safe deposit lockers. New factories were opened one after the other, most notably in Oust-Marest in the Somme region where security locks were manufactured. This factory was supported by the nearby “Fichet Village” and by a factory in Creil which made bank safes.

On the eve of World War I, the general partnership that was Fichet became a limited partnership, and came under the management of Jacques Bournisien and Marcel Beau. A factory was set up in Sens in 1917 and two years later branches were opened all around the world, including Italy, Argentina, Spain, Belgium, Romania and Brazil.

The company was able to expand its clients’ security and installed its first industrial alarm and surveillance network in 1926. The day before World War II, Bournisien passed away and Beau was left to run the company. He was aided for a time by Monsieur Nadaud, none other than the husband of Alexandre Fichet’s great-great-granddaughter.

The Bauche company
In 1864, Auguste-Nicolas Bauche, expert in fire-resistant materials, began to produce safes and founded his first production factory in Gueux, near Reims in France. By 1867, the Gueux workshops had become too cramped. The factory was moved to Reims with more modern workshops incorporating a technological breakthrough of the time: a cementation furnace for the extreme hardening of the surface of certain steels.

This led to great advancements in the protection safes could offer. In 1879, Bauche demonstrated the efficacy of his fire safes with a live demonstration and several thousand frans emerged intact from a safe after having been repeatedly subjected to fire. Then the invention of the "ironclad" safe - both fire-resistant and amour-plated - in 1895 really made Bauche's name.

Bauche expanded with the creation of a factory in Feuquières. 1914 saw the start of World War I and the factory fell into the hands of the Germans who, on their retreat in 1918, razed the building to the ground. Afterwards the ruins were re-built and both production and research were started afresh.

1924 saw new anti-welding torch testing - the focus of a new technology which would be used for many years to come. Working for the national defence ministry, the factory was destroyed once more by the Germans in 1940 and four years later was partially reconstructed as a repair workshop for American tanks. One had to wait until well after the war before the factory was completely re-built.

The creation of Fichet-Bauche
1967 saw the merger of the Fichet and Bauche companies. The newly christened Fichet-Bauche company and focused on safes, safe deposit lockers, vaults and locks.

The corporate headquarters was transferred to Clamart in Vélizy and, in parallel, a new factory was built in Carignan for the production of fire-resistant safes.

The Fichet-Bauche Group also expanded internationally during the late 60s and 70s. A factory designed for the manufacture of vault room doors and safes was built in Barcelona and new offices were opened in Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Gunnebo Security Group
In 1999, Fichet-Bauche was acquired by the Gunnebo Security Group. Today it is one of several brands of safes and vaults sold and marketed by the security company.

Safes
Safes are sold from Grade I to Grade VI, rising in the level of physical attack the safe will withstand. A grade is always awarded by an independent body.

Fire Safes
Safes are also sold which withstand fire. These are independently certified for the length of protection (half an hour, one hour or two hours) and the type of contents which will be protected (either paper or data). The range includes document safes, data safes and fireproof filing cabinets.

Vault Rooms
With grades up to XII, vault rooms and vault doors are used not only by banks, but also companies which need to protect the contents of a specific area, such as a weapons room or storage of pharmaceuticals.