In 1987, Claude Cholet de Chirac, C.E.O. of Sitour, specialised in supermarket labelling and signs, first came up with the idea of creating an electronic shelf label.
This new product would do away with manual label changes, a costly, tedious task, offering no added value. .
It would also make it possible to eliminate the excessive number of errors observed with paper labels between the prices displayed on the shelves and the prices actually charged at the checkout.
A somewhat perfect system, eliminating human costs and display errors.

1988	Electronic shelf label feasibility study
1989	Confirmation of feasibility and first prototype
1990	Founding of SES (Sitour Electronic Systems)
1992	First industrialised label
1993	First store installation
94-95	Improvements and adaptations of products
1996	Genuine start of marketing in France and purchase of capital for funding purposes by new shareholders.
1997	Founding of SES Technologie.
1998	Philippe Catteau, former head of a supermarket chain, joins the S.E.S group and becomes C.E.O. Foundation of S.E.S Communication
1999	Launch of new generation of labels, V2 type, including several new functions.
2000	S.E.S is the market leader in France with almost 1,200,000 accumulated labels sold.. Capital purchased by PARTCOM (Caisse des Dépôts group) to fund the group's international development.
2001	Launch of the export activity. SES COM turns profitable on operating results. Over 2,400,000 accumulated labels sold.
2002	Non-exclusive world-wide distribution contract with WINCOR NIXDORF First international installations: Belgium, Portugal…
2003	Launch of new-generation Electronic Labelling System: the SYNTHESIS System (V3 type) New international installations: Slovenia, Italy, Spain... 6,000,000 accumulated labels sold. Operating profit before amortization of goodwill of € 2.5 million.
2004	Major contract and roll-out with CARREFOUR Belgium (CARREFOUR, GB PARTNER, GB CONTACT, GB EXPRESS, SUPER GB). New references in France : SPAR, SHOPI, ECOMARCHE… Acquisition of SES COM via SES, especially by LBO France funds. .
2005	INTERMARCHE selected SES as its exclusive ESL provider for its roll-out. AUCHAN Russia Hypermarket (first order in Russia). First store ever equipped with ESL in Ukraine: TAVRIYA supermarket. First step in Asia: CARREFOUR Singapore selected SES to install ESL. CARREFOUR chose SES for one pilot store in Madrid. 13 300 000 accumulated Electronic Shelf Labels sold in 819 stores as of 31/10/2005. Development in the non-food sector (test stores). Quick increase of export activity: Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. First order for Germany