In 1912, Meyenburg Bodenfräsen manufacturing rights for France, Spain and Argentina were obtained by the French company "La Société Motoculture Française SA" in Paris. A prototype was demonstrated at a show at the agricultural school in Grignon near Seine et Oise on 16th October 1913.

In 1919, their manufacturing rights were taken over by the company SOMUA (Société d'Outillage Mécanique et d'Usinage d'Artillerie) at 170, Boulevard Victor-Hugo in Saint-Ouen, France. Although SOMUA had been founded in 1835, it took until 1914 to take over the activities of three companies, the Usines Bouhey and the Ets. Farcot, both well-known general engineers and constructors of heavy military equipment, and the automobile construction division of the Société Schneider. The main activity of the new group would remain the production of commercial vehicles, making good use of the fame the Schneider trucks and buses had already established for themselves. During World War I SOMUA became famous for their artillery tractors and tanks.

SOMUA made this 1919 tiller tractor, weighing 2430 kg, which was powered by a 35 hp 4 cilinder engine, shown here under demonstration near Basel, Switzerland. SOMUA later built small vinery- and market garden tillers.

The 7 hp C12 model looked very similar to the SIMAR No. 10 and the Siemens Plantagenfräse, but it was powered by a water cooled two stroke SICAM petrol engine. The C12 could power a 70 cm wide rotary cultivator, weighed 330 kg and had 2 forward and 1 reverse speeds.

Also available 1953 was a model F5 with a 4 hp engine, 2 forward speeds, a 40 cm wide tiller and a weight of 136 kg. The machine shown in the picture was offered for sale on eBay in March 2005.

This SOMUA model B3 was presented at the 1957 25th Salon de Paris. It had a 12 hp two stroke water cooled petrol engine, 4 speeds between 1.3 and 10.3 km/h and weighed 320 kg with fitted rotary ciltivator.

A lot of further information on SOMUA rotary cultivators is shown on Donald A. Jones' French rototiller page.

The history of SOMUA trucks ended in 1955, when they amalgamated with the companies Latil, Floirat and the Renault trucks division to form SAVIEM (Société Anonyme de Véhicules Industriels et Equipements Mécaniques). In 1962 SOMUA dealt a fusion with Henri Ernault (lathes constructor) in Paris. H. Ernault SOMUA was formed, resulting in more than 60,000 machines working all over the world. The SOMUA name still survives in the lathes construction of SOMUA Montzeron.