On the main roads of Normandy — between Caen, Évreux and the border with Brittany — heavy goods vehicles travel daily, serving the agricultural, construction and regional logistics sectors. Anyone who needs to get a commercial vehicle back on the road quickly in this area is highly likely to end up at a branch of the Decharenton Group: a group of companies that has been part of the Alltrucks network since 2018 and provides lorry servicing services across the entire region.
This profile illustrates how a tightly-knit network of sites and long-established multi-brand expertise work in tandem when several independent businesses pool their strengths. Those working on their own set-up in parallel will find further examples in our workshop profiles of how European Alltrucks partners organise independent commercial vehicle servicing.
Five independent companies — Autodistribution Desert, Decharenton, Leroux Brochard, SBPL and Sodiama — will retain their distinct identities and local customer bases, whilst working together as one in the lorry service sector. With 14 sites, a shared parts warehouse and around 150 technicians, this creates a level of responsiveness that a single company could not achieve across this area.
Who is the Groupe Decharenton?
The Groupe Decharenton is a consortium. Operating under its umbrella are the companies Autodistribution Desert, Decharenton, Leroux Brochard, SBPL and Sodiama. Together, the group employs around 460 employees, of which approximately 150 technicians in the commercial vehicle service sector. With group turnover of around 73 million euros, it is one of the region’s leading service providers.
According to the group itself, what sets it apart is not so much a single specialism as a management philosophy. The company’s senior management — Messrs Luquas, Alleaume, Renault and Crespin — place great emphasis on human values and on nurturing and making targeted use of each employee’s strengths. It is precisely this approach that enables the individual expertise of each site to be pooled. Since 2018, this pooling of expertise has also fuelled the success of the Alltrucks network.
The group’s real strength lies in the combination of parts sales and workshop services. It is no coincidence that, alongside the approximately 150 technicians, there are also 35 staff working in field service and sales. A company that stocks and delivers spare parts itself can supply its own workshops more quickly than one that has to source every part externally. In Normandy, this proximity between the warehouse and the service bay is a competitive advantage that the group has been consistently building on for years.
Network of sites in Normandy
The backbone of the group is its network of sites. 14 locations are spread across five départements in Normandy — from Flers via Sodiama in Agneaux and St-Hilaire-du-Harcouët to the Autodistribution Desert depots in Évreux and Pont-Audemer, as well as SBPL in Bretteville-l’Orgueilleuse. This network shortens the distance to customers and ensures that spare parts are kept close to the workshop.
Behind these sites lie companies with different histories and different areas of specialisation. Autodistribution Desert provides the parts distribution arm, whilst SBPL, Sodiama and Leroux Brochard contribute workshop capacity and long-established regional customer relationships; the group’s operations are coordinated under the Decharenton name. For the customer, this structure remains in the background: they deal with a single point of contact, receive a confirmed appointment and a service commitment — regardless of which of the 14 sites their vehicle happens to be at.
Since joining the Alltrucks network in 2018, the group has strengthened its local presence through strategic partnerships and continuous expansion, taking a step-by-step approach and focusing on the needs of regional logistics. Each new location brings the group closer to its nearest customer and further strengthens the service network.
Service culture: response times and regional roots
What particularly sets Groupe Decharenton apart in the fleet sector is the combination of deep regional roots and an uncompromising commitment to fast response times. In an industry where a stationary vehicle costs money, it is not the list price alone that counts, but the question: how quickly will the lorry be back on the road? The Group’s dynamic teams work towards this very goal every day.
This approach has a direct impact on customer efficiency. Haulage firms connected via Alltrucks benefit from minimal downtime, predictable delivery times and contact persons who are familiar with the regional routes. The extent to which consistently managed Throughput times It is precisely this point that reveals how a fleet’s cost-effectiveness is affected — short journeys and a nearby parts warehouse form the basis for this.
Having deep regional roots is more than just a locational advantage. Anyone who has looked after the region’s vehicle fleets for years is familiar with the seasonal peaks in agriculture, the types of vehicles used in the construction industry and the transport companies’ route schedules. This knowledge is incorporated into the assessment, diagnosis and scheduling processes, making a visit to the workshop a predictable event.
Everyday operations demonstrate exactly how this works: if a dispatcher reports a fault in the morning, the availability of the part determines the repair date. If the required item is in the Group’s own warehouse, the nearest site can schedule the repair on the very same day, rather than having the lorry wait overnight for a delivery. It is precisely this chain of a nearby workshop, an available part and swift coordination that fleets value at Groupe Decharenton — and which a single site could not replicate without the backing of the group.
The transport companies connected via the Alltrucks Fleet benefit most from this. For them, the Decharenton model translates into fewer unplanned downtimes, shorter journeys to the nearest workshop and a standard of service that remains consistent across all locations. This is precisely what the Group’s dynamic teams work towards every day: first-class service as a means of helping customers achieve greater efficiency — not as a promise on paper, but as a measurable factor in route planning.
Why the Alltrucks Network: Pooling expertise
Since 2018, the group has been part of the Alltrucks network — a decision that supports its decentralised structure rather than standardising it. Three key factors are central to this:
Multi-brand expertise for all common manufacturers
The Alltrucks portfolio covers all major commercial vehicle manufacturers. For the Group’s companies, this means a common standard for multi-brand operations across all 14 sites.
Technical support when things get tight
If a vehicle falls outside the standard range, Alltrucks Technical Support steps in — from the technical helpline to the forum. This removes the risk for individual sites of running into difficulties with a special model.
Pooling expertise rather than spreading it out
The network provides the group with a framework for pooling the strengths of its dealerships: coordinated scheduling, a shared spare parts pool, a standardised service promise — whilst still maintaining five independent brands with a local profile.
Added to this is the European dimension. Through the network, the group is part of a network of more than 650 partner garages in 18 countries — which is particularly relevant for fleets that operate across borders and wish to rely on comparable service standards even beyond Normandy. What begins locally with five centres extends, via the Alltrucks network, to partners throughout Europe.
The collaboration is supported by Gwenaël Lalonde, the coordinator of the lorry network, who assists the workshop teams in their day-to-day operations. The group explicitly attributes the success of the model to the trust of its management — and the willingness of the teams to work together across company and site boundaries. In this way, five companies form a service network that acts as a single entity for fleets.
What workshops can learn from the Groupe Decharenton
- Independence and solidarity are not mutually exclusive. Five organisations, each with their own distinct character, can work together as a unified force without sacrificing their local identity.
- A shared parts warehouse is a competitive advantage. Having 160,000 items on the shop floor means shorter waiting times than any individual express order. On-site availability beats catalogue depth.
- A multi-brand service needs a standard. All major manufacturers across 14 sites operate solely within a shared technical framework — in this case, the Alltrucks network — rather than using 14 isolated solutions.
- Leadership as a structural feature. Targeting the development of staff strengths brings together expertise more quickly than any reorganisation.
Anyone managing multiple sites should view the parts warehouse as a shared resource, rather than as the sum of individual warehouses. A centrally managed pool with regional distribution — as is the case with Groupe Decharenton — significantly reduces downtime and makes the entire group more predictable for fleets than any individual site. Anyone planning their next investment should therefore first assess capacity utilisation and scheduling across all sites.
The Groupe Decharenton demonstrates that scale and customer proximity are not mutually exclusive. With 14 sites, a shared warehouse and 460 employees, it has built a service network that responds swiftly across Normandy — delivering precisely the efficiency that fleets rely on. We are proud that, since 2018, this strength has been an integral part of the Alltrucks network.