While the cradle of eyewear in France is in the Jura, the eyewear manufacturer Solf is based in Guichainville, near Évreux (Eure). There is the only factory in Normandy born from the will of the optician Jean Lemperor in 1966. At the time when wood, tortoiseshell, buffalo horn and metal were worked, the founder bet on cellulose acetate.
The house has had up to 250 employees for a production of 30,000 pairs of glasses per year for major brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Balmain and Sonia Rykiel. Then, it suffered foreign competition. In 2014, Thierry Bonhomme and Jean-François Lufeaux, from the IT world, bought the brand. Today, the company has 55 employees and last year manufactured 120,000 parts, “thanks to strong growth from our existing customers”. Solf must now invest and hire to continue its growth.
It is always on the basis of cellulose acetate, with an “organic” version on demand, that the 55 employees produce the glasses “for around fifteen independent customers, creators, major brands and designers, not necessarily known to the General public “. “We also have our own brand, Struktur, which we bought four years ago, explains Jean-François Lufeaux, the general manager. We design on demand, based on a more or less finished drawing from the client. We can also be a source of proposals, especially on the technical part, because not everything is possible. That’s when we make a prototype. If the customer approves it, we start production. »
From there, machines and small hands get going for machining, polishing with wooden cubes, bending, inserting hinges, marking, assembly and polishing. In total, 80 operations are necessary to obtain the “France Garantie” certification and especially “the Normandy handmade engraved on our temples”.
With 12 million pairs sold in France per year, including 10% for the independent and designer market, Solf finds itself with a one-year order book, “whereas normally it is four to five months. It is too long ! We refuse new customers every month. Entrants, but also brands that want to have another factory in their portfolio or that want to relocate. So, to save jobs, we have to expand and modernize our production tool to reach 200,000 pairs of glasses per year. We have no choice, ”said the leader.
The craze for the “made in France” of luxury brands
Already work has started. A new workshop will open in early 2023, with the hiring of ten additional people. The founders are also betting on their Struktur brand, which is surfing in France and for export “on the craze for the made in France, which increased during the pandemic, of the major luxury brands”. “We have just opened Australia and New Zealand. Soon we will be in Japan, a very demanding market with a very specific eyewear culture. Our challenge is to be among independent opticians. They are looking for original brands”, continues Jean-François Lufeaux.
To strengthen this deposit internationally, the leaders also want to create or acquire other French or foreign brands “depending on opportunities, meetings”. For this, Solf will be at SILMO Paris 2022, the world’s optical trade show, from September 23 to 26. On a stand inspired by the boards of Deauville. “Handmade in Normandy”.
www.struktur-eyewear.fr