San Francisco Frontiers - French brushmakers stage 'comeback' with pivot to luxury market

"We've been making brushes here for six generations," said Daniel Desjardins, standing in his family workshop, which has been turning out brushes made from horsehair or boar bristles since its opening in 1834.

Now, "it's becoming a lost craft," Desjardins said, citing fierce competition from cheaper goods made in Eastern Europe and China.

Synthetic materials replacing natural bristles and struggling to find young people interested in the trade also threaten the industry, leaving the profession's future uncertain.

But brushmakers in France's northern Oise valley are "refocusing" their efforts in a bid to revive the craft, said Desjardins, by turning towards the luxury sector.

-'Only three left'-

Tucked away in a valley north of Paris, France's brushmaking industry sprang up in the 19th century, drawn by the proximity to the country's capital and the Therein river.

"There were 12 brush shops in my grandfather's day," just in his small village of Hermes, said Frederic Brigaud, whose family business has been supplying France's brushmaking industry with boar bristles since 1930.

Now, "there are only three manufacturers of fine brushes left in all of France," Brigaud added, including the one run by Desjardins in the village of Cauvigny.

The surviving companies have turned to high-end clients, including shoemakers like Berluti and Weston.

"The luxury niche is what's saving us," Desjardins told AFP, showing off stamps used to mark finished brushes with the names of upscale clients.

Brushmakers are catering to more niche customers, making "brushes for jewellery brands and indoor climbing gyms" to clean the holds on the walls, he added.

Even with this pivot, the company - which ships some 20,000 brushes a month – has gone from ten to three employees.

"It's Europe that has ruined everything," said Desjardins, saying customers flocked to Eastern European rivals paying wages "half the price" before turning to Chinese competitors.

But one French brushmaker says its shift towards luxury markets has brought it back from the brink.

-'Efforts paying off'-

Enzo Saintomer uses a drill to drive bristle holes into a wooden handle of one of the several hundred Fournival Altesse brushes made by hand every year.

"It looks simple, but the bristles have to be set at a certain angle', said the 23-year-old.

These handmade brushes, which retail for 350 euros ($380), are a fraction of the some 400,000 brushes produced each year by the company, which says it has seen a renaissance in recent years.

Fournival Altesse went into receivership in 2005, but its shift towards the luxury market, championed by its new CEO Julia Tissot-Gaillard, is turning things around.

Tissot-Gaillard negotiated price increases of 100-150 percent with high-end clients, including Leonor Greyl, Kerastase and even Dior, by emphasising the quality and craftsmanship behind their brushes.

The company is now enjoying double-digit growth and has hired ten people this year, a sign their "efforts are paying off," said Tissot-Gaillard.

Even so, the industry is dogged by another challenge -- a declining interest from younger generations to learn the trade.

-'Making a comeback'-

Frederic Brigaud is one of France's two remaining craftsmen supplying horsehair or wild boar bristles for companies like Altesse and Desjardins, down from 40 in the post-World War II era.

"There are a lot of things that need hair and no one suspects it," said Brigaud, explaining the intricacies of the craft passed down to him by his father and grandfather before him.

But the rise of synthetic materials like nylon has brought down the demand for natural fibres, the craftsman added.

And his Chinese suppliers – the only ones still raising animals long enough to obtain long bristles -- are turning "more and more to intensive pig factory farming", a system that prioritises efficient meat production.

Brigaud now supplies all the remaining French brushmakers and has had to open up to exports, which account for 60 percent of his business.

Ready to retire, the craftsman said he has not yet found anyone to take over his business or his know-how.

"There is no school to learn this trade… it is a skill that is passed on, said Brigaud.

Unfortunately, he said, "young people are not really interested in it any more, they would rather work with a machine or a computer."

For all its uncertainties, the industry’s shift to the luxury market is keeping the traditional craft going -- for now.

"Today, we reach customers just about everywhere in the world, thanks to luxury goods," said Altesse CEO Tissot-Gaillard.

And it helps that products made in France "are making a strong comeback", said Brigaud.

D.Parker--SFF