Grasse and its family perfume businesses

To an incomer to Grasse like me, it seems remarkable that the area’s most important industry has thrived here for more than two centuries. Few towns anywhere in the world have retained their industrial heritage over such a long time, especially when their original strength, in Grasse’s case ample supplies of locally grown flowers, no longer applies.

The recognition by Unesco of Grasse’s heritage in 2018 acknowledges the expertise built up over the generations, but when you look at the picture more closely, local ownership and management stands out as another crucial factor in the area's long term success. Yet the later decades of the twentieth century were difficult for Grasse, and could have been disastrous.

Family ownership

Until after World War II, Grasse’s perfumeries were virtually all not only locally but also family owned. Many were passed on from father to son (or sometimes son-in-law). Two of the largest had their main factories on the south east slope below the old town, where their sites can easily be seen today.

From the 'point de vue' behind the cathedral, the sites of Antoine Chiris (outlined in red - now the Law Courts, with the tower of the 'Mosquée' to the right) and Roure-Bertrand (outlined in green - various local government, colleges and other offices today) can easily be identified. The yellow apartment block in front occupies the site of the station on the long defunct Chemins de Fer du Sud railway.

Antoine Chiris was run by no less than six generations in direct descent.

Successive heads of Chiris

Léon was the undoubted star of the family. He expanded the business all over the world on the back of the technological revolution of steam distilling and later become a noted actor in national French politics (his two daughters were married to two of the sons of the unfortunate president Sadi Carnot, who was assassinated in 1894). In 1910, Chiris employed over 2,000 people globally and had around 20 factories in all.

The black sheep appears to have been Léon-Antoine, spending above his income and failing to invest for the future. He sold the Chiris company to the American corporation Universal Oil Products in 1967, from whom it was passed through various owners until its disappearance under a pile of further mergers in the 1980s.

The main entrance to Chiris' factory before the Great War. The 'Mosquée', originally built in 1899 as a hall for the then-new technology of extraction by solvents, can be seen behind it.

Chiris’ neighbouring competitor, Roure-Bertrand, was almost equally successful, with 1,000 employees and a world-wide footprint similar to that of Chiris before the second war. Its family tree is more complex than Chiris because, in the fourth and fifth generations, sons-in-law came to manage the company but six generations in all were involved.

Then, having also run into financial difficulties, Roure was sold to the Swiss chemicals giant Hoffmann-La Roche in 1964, who in 1991 merged it with Givaudan.

Roure-Bertrand today, renovated and re-purposed. Top left, with offices, a shop, education facilities and a business incubator. Bottom left, offices of the Pays de Grasse. But the giveaway is still the chimney, on the right.

Entry of the big guns

A similar story applies to other historic Grasse businesses – failure to cope with technological change (especially the movement towards synthetic fragrances which reduced the demand for Grasse’s traditional ‘naturals’) leading to financial problems. But in the 1960s and 70s, several big chemical corporations saw in fragrances an opportunity to diversify into ‘speciality’ chemicals which were more profitable than their traditional massive plants making commodity products from oil.

La Roche was one, but others were Rhone-Poulenc (France), Pfizer (USA), Elf-Aquitaine (France – via its then Sanofi subsidiary), Bayer and Degussa (both Germany); even rather more food-orientated companies like Unilever (UK-Netherlands) and Cargill (USA) got in on the act. Between them, they bought up not only Chiris and Roure but many of the other Grasse perfumeries, with the owners cashing in.

A publicity drawing from 1939 of Méro & Boyveau's factory, between bd Victor Hugo and av Ste Lorette. It was finally demolished as recently as 2007.

So Méro & Boyveau and Tombarel fell into the arms of Sanofi, only to be sold on later, while Lautier, Isnard-Maubert and Schmoller & Bompard were all acquired by Rhone-Poulenc. CAL, whose factory was in the St Claude quarter, was purchased by Pfizer.

Yet several of the better managed companies, notably Mane and Robertet, have under family management not only capitalised on the synthetics revolution but also kept their independence.

And exit again!

The corporations’ strategy was good in theory but in practice, probably because their management did not properly understand the sector. In the 1990s and a little later, huge chemicals corporations like Rhone-Poulenc fell out of favour with investors and their share prices drooped. Groups which had been put together by bankers, who earned huge fees from the process, were broken up (to the benefit of the bankers again, of course). One result of an orgy of financial engineering at the time was the re-emergence, from the giant corporations, of smaller concerns. One or two specialised in fragrance and flavours.

Major fragrance and flavourings companies today

There are various league tables around, but most compilers seem to agree that the top eight companies in the fragrance world today rank something like this:

All of the top four are present in Grasse, and three of them can be traced to the break-up of big groups. Givaudan’s origins go back via La Roche to Roure and Méro & Boyveau, while Symrise’s history derives originally from Rhone-Poulenc via an American company called Florasynth and the German chemicals giant Bayer. CAL, one of Grasse's largest companies as late as the 1960s, ended up as part of DSM-Firmenich via Pfizer. International Flavors and Fragrances' assets in Grasse includes one of its most innovative establishments, Laboratoire Monique Remy. Grasse is home to both Givaudan’s ‘House of Naturals’ and DSM-Firmenich’s ‘Naturals Center of Excellence’.

But for me, the most striking point is that the fifth and eight ranked are two independent Grasse enterprises, Mane and Robertet. Both are triumphant survivors of the carnage of the second half of the last century and demonstrate the continuing power of family management and control.

V Mane Fils

Earlier this year, over 150 years on from its foundation in 1871 in Pont-du-Loup, the fifth generation of the Mane family took over the role of CEO, in the shape of Samantha Mane.

Successive heads of V Mane Fils

Back in the late nineteenth century, when the likes of Chiris and Roure were in their pomp, Mane was just a minnow in Bar-sur-Loup, but it has grown to outstrip them all, with over 8,000 employees, 31 factories and nearly €2,000m in global sales. Among family owned companies around the world, its size is nowhere near behemoths like Volkswagen, Lidl, Cargill or Tata, but it’s expanded from less than 100 employees in the 1920s and stayed the course all through the turmoil of the local industry at the end of the last century.

(Top left) Mane'second factory in Bar-sur-Loup, used from 1907, as seen today. It's been, like many others, converted to apartments, but the name is still over the door. (Top right) Mane's first development on the Notre Dame site at Bar sur Loup, a distillation hall, built 1930 (image from Mane web-site). (Bottom right) The 30s/40s style lettering still marks out the Notre Dame site today. (Bottom left) The site from the air today (image from Mane web-site), with the original building outlined in red.

Like all the other big players, Mane produces both fragrances and flavourings. It has grown both organically and through several acquisitions. In 1959 it acquired the Bruno Court company, whose premises, originally a Franciscan convent, once dominated the north-eastern edge of the old town.

Bruno Court's chimney and hall was a prominent feature of Grasse's skyline, to the right in this image. (Archives of Grasse)

The Mane family must have been proud at the time to see their once much smaller enterprise taking over one of Grasse's most significant names.

Other family companies in Grasse

Robertet, controlled by the Maubert family, is much the largest of the other fragrance and flavourings companies around here. Present in Grasse since 1879 and, like Mane, built up partly by acquisition, it includes other historic local concerns, including Hugues Ainé and Charabot, whose sites (on rue Mirabeau and av Baudouin respectively) are still conspicuous in the town. Its original site on rue Chiris is less obvious, but it can also be seen today.

Robertet perfumery in rue Chiris, in use 1879-1895

Several other family businesses still flourish, including Sozio, which can trace its origins to 1758 and has been under the Moor family since 1979, and Payan & Bertrand, which started in 1854 and has been controlled and managed by the Proals since 1922. Jean Niel, founded in 1779 and whose factory was until as late as 2000 in rue Tracastel, can claim nine generations of ownership, although the direct ancestors of today’s de Boutinys came along from about 1910.

The consumer perfumeries

Perhaps even more remarkably, Grasse’s three main tourism-orientated perfumeries, Fragonard (see my blog here), Molinard (run by the Bénards, who were also significant in the Méro & Boyveau business) and Galimard (originating with the Roux family in the 1920s) are all family managed.

Despite all the turmoil between 1960 and 2000 and the growth of the sector since, much of Grasse’s heritage is still controlled and run by families. I think it helps to explain why perfumery has maintained and grown its presence here for so long.