Messieurs Fixit

Two types of people can generally feel assured of gaining entry to Charles de Gaulle's closely guarded Elyeee Palace: heads of state and SOS men. SOS operatives also receive the open-door treatment at the home of Premier Georges Pompidou, the American embassy and Princess Grace of Monaco's Parisian apartment. Reason: SOS is the company to which knowledgeable French householders turn when their plumbing goes bad, which is frequently.

French plumbing is infamous, and so are French plumbers (not that their American colleagues are much to boast about either). It is commonplace for a French operative to take days or weeks to answer a call, then, after fumbling about for a bit, to leave a flood where only a drip had existed before. Capitalizing on the general state of disrepair among France's repairmen, SOS's two young owners have built up a $1,000,000-a-year business out of providing prompt and relatively effective service. Gerard Verger, 33, and Joel Laval, 31, started SOS (telephone SOS 99-99) in 1961 with two motorcycles and two trucks. Today, they operate 100 trucks, all radio-equipped, that are manned by a versatile crew of not only plumbers but carpenters, locksmiths, electricians, and appliance handymen--each with a trade-school diploma. Working on a 24-hour-a-day schedule, SOS answers 100,000 calls a year.

The service has done so well that Verger and Laval have spread to seven other French cities, Vienna, Brussels and London. Half a dozen competing firms have started up in Paris, but Laval feels that the demand for fix up is still well ahead of the supply. Even SOS has recently turned down some calls for lack of men and trucks. "The service situation in France can't go anywhere but down," says he gleefully, and is making plans to double his fleet.

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