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GYS was founded in 1964 in Laval, France, and is family-owned. It is headquartered in Laval, Mayenne and has research and development centers, factories, and commercial subsidiaries in France, Germany, UK, Italy, India, and China. The company employs over 650 people.
GYS is an industrial group that designs and manufactures welding equipment, battery-related products, and collision repair equipment. The company focuses on three categories of products: equipment for welding, battery maintenance, and automobile body repair.
In 1964, Guy Yves Stephany created GYS in 1964 with the purpose of manufacturing auto-transformers on behalf of Électricité de France (EDF), a French multinational electric utility company, for the west part of France.
In the early 1970s, GYS expanded its product range with car battery chargers. The company first engineered and manufactured car battery chargers in 6 V, then in 6 V/12 V, and finally in 6 V/12 V/24 V. In the late 1970s, GYS added to their product list again with a welding machine, and over the next sixteen years GYS expanded its portfolio of welding products.
In 1997, GYS was acquired by Nicolas Bouygues and significant investments were made to modernize the historical French factory. Simultaneously, the management expanded the transformer-based welding machine line with the manufacturing of GYS's first inverter electrode welding machine.
2001–2004: The company continued to invest in R&D to expand its inverter welding range to include tungsten inert gas (TIG)/Plasma and metal inert gas (MIG) welding as well as a battery charger catalogue. During the same period, added a third product category: automotive body repair spot welding products.
From 2004–2020, GYS accelerated its international expansion with the opening of international subsidiaries:
- 2004: An industrial subsidiary is opened in Shanghai, China to manufacture a range of retail battery chargers
- 2006: A commercial subsidiary is opened in Aachen, Germany
- 2008: A commercial subsidiary is opened in Warwick, UK
- 2011: A second company (commercial subsidiary) is opened in Shanghai, China
- 2013: A subsidiary is opened in Coimbatore, India
- 2014: A new R&D center is opened in Laval, France
- 2015: A subsidiary is opened in Venice, Italy
- 2018: A second factory in France is under construction Laval, France
