How it started
Origins
The company's origins date back to 1865, when a Limoges porcelain (in France's Limousin region) workshop was set up on the route to Lyon originally making porcelain dishes. In 1904, the company was taken over by Frédéric Legrand who gave his name to the company. In 1919, the company entered into a partnership with an artisan from Limoges, Jean Mondot, who had started a small factory in Exideuil making electric switches using porcelain and boxwood.
Manufacturing subsequently gradually diversified into electrical equipment. At that time, before the appearance of plastic, porcelain was the best available insulating material. In 1949, following a factory fire, the decision was made to exclusively concentrate on electrical wiring devices (switches and sockets). The company very quickly extended its range to cover protection products (fuse-holders and circuit breakers, etc.), cable management products (trunking and mini-trunking), emergency lighting, etc.
Legrand is a manufacturer of electrical and digital building infrastructure products and connected devices, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products. As of 2021, the company had operations in 90 countries and sold its products in 180 countries.
Internationalization in the second half of the 20th century
1966: First subsidiary outside France established in Belgium.
From Wikipedia’s article on Legrand, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3