New issue

Issues of 2009

Villeroy & Boch: yesterday and now. the short history of an old Europe's family business

The major ceramics company Villeroy & Boch began in the tiny French village of Audun le Tiche in Lotharingia on the German border, where Francois Boch set up a pottery company with his three sons in 1748. His workshop was operated in an old smithy house. It produced pottery ware of faience type. Later the company moved to nearby Luxembourg, where it still operates a china factory today.

The Villeroy and Boch Co. opened in 1748 under the direction of Francois Boch and his sons, Pierre-Joseph, Dominique, and Jean-Francois. The Boch family was held in high esteem by the townspeople of Audun-le-Tiche, France.

Vase. 1926. Fine faience

[zoom (57k)]

The company experienced a number of set backs in its early days. Francois Boch was unaccustomed to the production of porcelain and did not have the correct formula to produce attractive and durable tableware. Until the writing of the American Constitution in 1889, there were no laws protecting what is now known as intellectual property. As a result, those who knew the formulas for producing items like attractive and durable porcelain often kept them as industry secrets. Acquiring information of this variety proved difficult and rare. However, the Boch brothers╩ younger sister, Catherine, met and wooed a gentleman named Pierre Valette. Pierre Valette bared the industry secret of producing a finely made porcelain that was easily decorated using limestone.

Because of his marriage to Catherine Boch, Valette was more than willing to share. His plates, cups, pots and tureens had simple shapes but were of excellent quality. Because of this, the facility and its goods became well known in a relatively short period of time. Based on his success he founded the company of ╚Jean-Francois Boch et Frеres╩ during 1767. This second facility was located in Septfontaines (Seven Springs), not far from the Luxemburg fortress, and commenced in early industrial serial production. A few years later (during 1770), the Septfontaines facility started to produce goods with the famous ╚Brindille╩ pattern, which is still in the ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ product range today under the name of ╚Alt-Luxemburg╩.

Other industrials tried to copy the success of Francois Boch. One of these was the businessman Nicolas Villeroy, who sets up an earthenware factory in Vaudrevange (today called Wallerfangen) on the River Saar in the year 1789. He successfully prints decoration onto tableware using copper plates, which was a decisive precondition for cost-effective serial production.

In 1809, Boch bought the former Benedictine abbey in Mettlach on the River Saar. There, he set up a very modern, extensively mechanised system for tableware production. Many of the machines were designed by Boch himself. His inventions started a new era: manual ceramic manufacture was to be replaced by industrial production. Today, the baroque building is still the corporate headquarters of ╚Villeroy & Boch╩.

Introduced to the trade by his brother, Pierre Joseph Boch founded the ╚Antonius Guild╩ in Septfontaines during the year 1812. This revolutionary social system for workers even exceeds the benefits introduced 70 years later in Bismarck╩s social security system.

Vase for tulips. Late XVIIIth century. Fine faience, underglaze painting

[zoom (57k)]

As can be seen by now, the Boch family was always interested in new ideas and so, during 1829, a new type of earthware was developed at the Boch factory in Mettlach. It is bright white and extremely hard and so similar to porcelain that it is called porcelain stoneware. The secret is kept well inside the company walls, so that no other competitor is in the position to produce anything like it.

In order to survive on the European market, the two rivals Jean-Francois Boch and Nicolas Villeroy merge their three works to form one business enterprise during 1836. The ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ company is born and its rise to market leadership of the European market begins. During 1942, the children of Villeroy and Boch are married, bonding both families together even further. And so the company of ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ starts to expand its product range during 1843. The first jointly established factory is a glassworks ≈ the ╚Cristallerie╩ in Wadgassen, whose products still complement the tableware range today. By 1846, ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ supplied tableware and decorative objects to all areas of Germany and a revolutionary new process of tile manufacture was introduced in Septfontaines: dry compression moulding. In principle, tiles are still made in the same way even today. During 1850, production of high-quality bone china and marble-like parian earthenware commenced and multi-coloured pattern printing was introduced. The company now supplied all European markets as well as those in North and South America. Another important step in the company history was the introduction of newly-developed floor tiles during 1852 which were particularly attractive and hard-wearing. The so-called ╚Mettlacher Platten╩ became incredibly successful throughout the world. Demand was so great that the Mettlach facility became the first European factory specialised in tile manufacture. Needing to expand, the company took over a further factory in Merzig on the River Saar during 1879. Next to floor tiles, terracotta as an architecturally-applied ceramic was introduced as a second Merzi-based product line. Both were an immense success and the facility in Merzig soon evolved into the largest manufacturer of floor tiles and terracotta anywhere in the world.

Around 1882 the speciality of the Mettlach facility was the production of washing vessels which were used by people from all walks of life. Production of normal earthenware and majolica items was distributed to other facilities, for example the Villeroy & Boch, Niederlassung Schramberg, which existed between 1883 and 1912. Gradually, however, all basins and jugs were pushed aside to make room for ceramic sanitary ware as we know it today. By 1899, large-scale production of ceramic sanitary ware like bathtubs, sinks and WCs in the new pipe-clay material started at the works in Merzig. Shortly afterwards, the revolutionary slip-casting process was introduced, drastically reducing production costs and making bathroom equipment affordable for everyone. The Saar region was separated from the German Reich in 1920 as a result of the World War and the factories there were no longer available to supply the German market. ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ compensated this by acquiring factories in Bonn as well as the ╚Mosaikfabrik Deutsch-Lissa╩ near Breslau (1920√1945).

As always, ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ showed perfect timing and the success achieved was quite impressive, even when compared with todays standards. Always on the lookout for new ideas, the ╚revolutionary╩ ideas of the Bauhaus school were taken up by ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ during 1930 and the Bauhaus style was reflected in the entire product range. In 1930, ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ employed around 10,000 people, but the Depression took its toll and by 1931, the facility in Bonn and the ╚Steingutfabrik Wallerfangen╩ (1790√1931) had to be closed. After 1935, the limited corporation was dissolved and all facilities were treated as single firms with a general office in Mettlach. The factories in all parts of Germany were considerably damaged during the Second World War. After the end of the war, the facility ╚Deutsch-Lissa╩ near Breslau as well as the facilities in Dresden and Torgau were expropriated and the works in the Saar Basin are integrated into the French economic area. But this dark period in company history did not last for long. Concentrating on basic designs and supplying the market with sanitary items and floor tiles during the post-war years, ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ was on its way to become a global enterprise. During 1959, production of the new and particularly hard vitreous porcelain began at the Septfontaines facility and in 1971, the first ever large-scale shipment of tableware went to Japan.

╚Villeroy & Boch╩ also continued to gain popularity in other overseas markets, particularly in the USA. By 1975, the significance of excellent designers continued to increase and the company concentrated on producing outstanding designs. One of the boldest steps was to enlist the famous (some say notorious) designer Luigi Colani, who was to design a complete set of bathroom equipment. For ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ it was the beginning of a new way of thinking: instead of just selling single products, whole ╚living areas╩ were created, based on the ideas of designers. During 1982, the whole ╚Villeroy & Boch╩ enterprise was re-structured. The factory business, which up until then was carried out on a decentralised basis, was combined to form three divisions: tiles, sanitary ware and tableware/crystal. In 1987, the company was converted into a public limited company.