Duralex

Duralex International is a French company based in La Chapelle Saint Mesmin in the county (Fr. département) of Loiret, which manufactures tableware from toughened glass. The business was placed in receivership in April this year. At one stage owned by the famous glassworks Saint Gobain, they were also affiliated with Pyrex.

Established in 1927 near Orléans by the vinegar producer Dessaux, the glassworks was sold in 1930 to the perfumier François Coty, who used it to manufacture perfume bottles. 

 

Duralex Picardie glasses in our kitchen.

In 1934 the business was acquired by Saint Gobain and in 1935 the factory employed 575 people. Saint Gobain had just invented toughened (tempered) glass, and the factory was put to work making headlights and windscreens for cars. In the 1970s the factory produced sanitary ware and in the 1980s they were making the doors for washing machines. 

At the same time, from 1945 onwards, the factory was making tableware. Their small round Gigogne glass was launched in 1946 and it became a cult object. The nine faceted Picardie glass was released in 1954 and became even more iconic. Generations of pupils in school cantines remember comparing their 'age', by checking the number on the bottom of each glass. The 'youngest' had to then fetch the water jug for that table.

The markings on one of the Duralex glasses in our  kitchen.

These numbers, from 01 to 50, represent the number of the machine the glass was made on. It allows the factory to quickly identify a machine with a problem and fix it.

The 1960s were a golden age for the factory, with these two products known world wide. In 1965 an advertisement for Duralex won best publicity film at Cannes, and MoMa in New York and the Elysée Palace in Paris were selling the glasses in their gift shops. At the time the factory employed 1500 people.

The decline began in the 1970s and Saint Gobain sold the business to an Italian glassmaker. In 2004 the company was sold to one of its executives, with investment backers. Within a year he had filed for bankruptcy and the business was bought by their biggest customer, a Turkish wholesaler. He promptly asset stripped the factory, left it in even more debt and disappeared back to Turkey. Half the machinery and stock is missing and there is a European arrest warrant waiting for him.

After a year a Franco-British industrialist, Antoine Ioannides became president of the company and he and his brother invested some tens of millions of euros. Things were going well, and then there was a serious problem with some specialist equipment after a new furnace was installed. The business was insured but claiming the money was taking years. And then Covid hit and the principal end users of their product, cafés and bars all over the world, were all closed. It was the killer blow and the Ioannides decided to sell to try to recup some of their investment.

The business started winding down but they could not completely close down the furnace for technical reasons. It limped on with a skeleton staff. Finally in 2020 it was placed in receivership. 

Then International Cookware (Pyrex) stepped up and took over. But in 2022, after becoming the Maison Française du verre, they got caught out by the hike in energy prices. This time the furnaces were shut off, for five months, and the 250 employees put on chômage partiel (a government scheme which means that employees are paid 80% of their wage by the State, to ensure a business in temporary difficulty doesn't close permanently with all employees becoming unemployed).

In March 2024 the company was taken over by New Duralex International. They were promptly asked to pay the 'rights to pollute' fee that was associated with the previous management. Within a month they'd asked the court to proceed with receivership. 

Last month the local authority offered to buy the land and buildings of the glass factory, in order to help the employees buy the business as a workers co-operative (Fr. Societé Cooperative et Participative). The workers have 6 months to get something together to save the company and their jobs.