At 43, Sébastien Rückert is an accomplished business leader. Founder of the very renowned Lin & Art Agencement structure, specializing in commercial layout, he has an atypical career path during which he has several times had to react to pitfalls and bounce back. But always with ambition, and above all with success.

A short half-hour drive from Nantes station takes us to Saint-Hilairede-Chaléons and its 2,500 souls. The bucolic village of Pays de Retz, whose history is closely linked to the Vendée wars, is home to a small – but dynamic! – industrial zone. Stuck at the bottom of a dead end, this is where the headquarters of Lin & Art are located, the company specializing in design founded by Sébastien Rückert, where we have an appointment. After a detailed tour of the "domain", and in particular of the vast workshop with exemplary organization and cleanliness, the manager welcomes us into his office: 20 a small, refined and designer room, where the meeting table takes up most of the space. space and where the office furniture itself is reduced to a discreet integrated and concealable arrangement along a wall. Ultimately like the man: sober but elegant, modest but cared for down to the smallest details... even when they are not yet completely finished! The administrative premises having recently had a makeover, everything is not yet "perfect": absence of signage in the corridors, alcove remaining to be padded in the office... even the poorly adjusted height of the chandelier in the subject for which he would almost apologize. This shows the perfectionism of the manager and the precise thinking established during the design of the layout – a quality that is obviously found in all the projects in which the company participates.

Surprises…

Sébastien Rückert built his company with the sweat of his brow, after a journey strewn with pitfalls. The first of these takes us back more than twenty-five years, to the crucial moment of finding a workshop willing to welcome him so that he could realize his apprenticeship training. After 24 refusals, he knocked on the door of a twenty-fifth structure: KMF Production, a layout company in SaintePazanne, in Loire-Atlantique. The manager at the time then made him a double promise, which Sébastien Rückert remembers almost word for word: “He just asked me if I was motivated and ready to work hard,” he recalls, not without a hint. bit of nostalgia. And without anything more official than his word, he even added that if I was good he would hire me at the end of my work-study program. After many disappointments and at the age of 16, it was unexpected. » The word was kept and young Sébastien even found himself responsible.

Including a major one in 2006: the separation of the layout part and the carpentry part at Blanchet, formalized by the pure and simple creation of a new structure. Lin & Art Agencement was born. To do this, Sébastien Rückert had to buy back the shares corresponding to the said layout activity of the Blanchet company.

…in ambitions

The banks followed, the financing was found, and Lin & Art was finally able to begin its development... or almost, because a few more difficulties were still needed to spice up the story. One in particular was particularly disabling: the construction of the Saint-Hilaire-de-Chaléons building was more than a year late! “The earthworks and the slab were completely botched, everything had to be redone and an additional 400,000 euros invested in the project. More money spent and fewer customers due to lack of team at the end of his first year of professional certification. Confirming his potential, he parachuted – almost against his will – into the structure’s design office shortly after. “There was extraordinary know-how in this box. » But in 1999, the Media6 group, specializing in point-of-sale marketing and advertising, diversified its activities by acquiring several layout companies, including KMF. New ways of doing things, new ways of working, new hierarchy… “I didn’t get it,” he regrets, “so I decided to resign. »

…in disappointments…

The rebound was not long in coming, and the young professional joined Alpha Partners, a project management company in Saint-Nazaire which was looking for a layout specialist. “Its aim was to increase the skills of its employees, but I quickly realized that this increase in skills would have to be done by myself and on the job. I had to manage everything, not just the layout part, even though I was far from being a versatile expert. » And the story ends inevitably and prematurely with a second resignation to escape this new disappointment. Despite the disappointments, Sébastien “in spite of himself” adds new strings to his bow by improving his skills in layout, design, project management... skills that he will be able to put to good use later. And as a good rebound specialist, he quickly found a place in the small Blanchet carpentry, with which he had already collaborated during the (short) time of Alpha Partners.

…and first fruits…

He will spend four years within this family structure aimed mainly at individuals, during which he will constantly develop the layout part - we do not redo it - in addition to a certainty for the future: he will work as little as possible, or even more at all, for individuals. “For me, cohabitation between the professional and the individual is unrealizable. Arranging in private homes is not really the same job. » It will be held there because since 2018, Lin & Art has only been aimed at professionals. But before this company became what it is today, several stages took place.

Including a major one in 2006: the separation of the layout part and the carpentry part at Blanchet, formalized by the pure and simple creation of a new structure. Lin & Art Agencement was born. To do this, Sébastien Rückert had to buy back the shares corresponding to the said layout activity of the Blanchet company.

…in ambitions

The banks followed, the financing was found, and Lin & Art was finally able to begin its development... or almost, because a few more difficulties were still needed to spice up the story. One in particular was particularly disabling: the construction of the Saint-Hilaire-de-Chaléons building was more than a year late! “The earthworks and the slab were completely botched, everything had to be redone and an additional 400,000 euros invested in the project. More money spent and fewer customers due to lack of premises, the equation was suicidal! » Fortunately, the big problems stopped there, and after this tense period the activity was able to reach full swing with numerous projects and a constantly increasing turnover. So much so that a new idea germinated in the mind of the business manager, finally coming to fruition at the beginning of 2020: “In addition to our usual activities, we have developed a large project management center, which allows us to competed with engineering agencies for example. But the distinction was difficult to make within Lin & Art itself, so why not separate the whole thing? »And the small structure inherited from Blanchet became a group.

Renaissance…

“They all thought I was crazy,” laughs Sébastien Rückert. By “all”, he means the other members of the board of directors of the Novéha association, of which he has been elected president since 2020. For the record, Novéha is the new name of Afpia, a training organization where he completed his apprenticeship at the age of 16 – the circle is complete. “It was at the time of the first confinement,” he insists, “most of the members were logically concerned about the health of their respective businesses, and I am telling them – by video! – that in barely a month I had changed everything! » Because what was only a prospect transformed into an assumed ambition then into reality: the JHK group was created on April 1, 2020. It is made up of three complementary entities: Lin & Art obviously for the part agency, which has around forty people; Quadratis, which concentrates project management activity around five people; and Oralians, solely dedicated to the engineering and renovation of hotel rooms, with three employees.

…and expansion

The risk paid off. While in 2019 Lin & Art represented around 6 million euros in turnover, in 2022 the JHK group achieved three times more: 5.8 million for Lin & Art, 4.5 million for Quadratis and 8 million for Oralians. “We claim to be designers but we intervene very early on for all projects, also providing a lot of advice and expertise. » The group works throughout France, and occasionally in the euro zone and the French Overseas Territories, for various commercial ERP projects, always under architect: hotels, restaurants, shops, museums... with historical know-how in the pharmacy layout! If the ancestry of the teams makes them work with wood most often, they do not refrain from working with other materials such as metal, glass or Corian, while being able to integrate accessories and locksmithing solutions or electricity for example.

Present fame…

Above all, the attractiveness and reputation of the group allow the company a “supreme luxury”: being able to sort and choose its projects. “We don’t want to work on subjects where there is no added value. » And if he has to designate a particular sector falling within their field of expertise, Sébastien does not hesitate for a second: “Museography! This is my pleasure sector. These are extraordinary opportunities to be able to work in such places steeped in history – even if it is sometimes restrictive in terms of site organization. But working at night under the Louvre pyramid, for example, is incomparable, almost unreal. » In addition to the largest museum in the world, the group also took part in the Château de Versailles, the Musée d’Orsay, the Center Pompidou… among others. “It’s a sector that is far ahead in terms of scenography, use and integration of new technologies. »

…and future prospects

And when financial health is good, investments and projects go hand in hand. Over the past two years, the group has created fifteen new positions. Even more recently, the Lin & Art workshop acquired a new saw with a brand new storage unit, which greatly facilitates the work of operators and allows them to save precious time. An “investment in efficiency” which will have cost the tidy sum of 400,000 euros all inclusive. And the evolution – or rather the expansion – will not stop there. Two important projects are still in the manager's sights: the extension in the coming years of the Saint-Hilairede-Chaléons workshop for an additional surface area of 1,500 m2, and in the more or less long term the diversification of the activities of the JHK group thanks to a land reserve of 8,000 m2 already acquired... And Sébastien Rückert concludes this long interview with a final cyclical remark, which allows him a maxim strangely reminiscent of his beginnings at KMF: “We knew that 2023 would be complicated, but we were prepared for it and we had anticipated it. You can always succeed no matter the situation, you just have to be willing to work hard to achieve it. » There is no doubt, this entrepreneur will bounce back whatever happens.

Brice-Alexandre Roboam

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