#Industry News
NOVOCERAM: 150 YEARS OF CERAMICS – The oldest French manufacturer of ceramic cladding tells its story
Novoceram, the French ceramic manufacturer established in 1863, is one of the oldest ceramic producers in France. Its first 150 years demonstrates how the company has evolved to become the French market leader.
At the foothills of the Drôme, on the banks of the Rhône stands Novoceram, one of the jewels of French creative flair that has produced ceramics in the region since the eighteenth century.
The story started in 1863, when Louis Boissonnet took over an old furnace producing vases and roof-tiles located in Saint Vallier-sur-Rhône. In 1865 the company officially took the name « Etablissements Boissonnet » and embarked on the production of art pieces and pottery in glazed gres porcelain, such as the famous allegorical vase created by sculptor Félix Devaux, the « Le Rhône et la Saône« , that won the silver medal at the Universal Exhibition in 1900. Over time the company blossomed and acquired other production sites. In 1918, when Alexis, the son of Louis Boissonnet’s took over from his successor, decided to broaden the company’s production range by adding pieces architectural ceramics. In 1933, Louis Boissonnet, the grand-child of the founder who succeeded his own father Alexis, decided to abandon the manufacturing of pottery completely and dedicate the factory exclusively to the production of ceramic tiles. In 1958 Etablissement Boissonnet became Novoceram. From that moment on the company set about a continual investment programme designed to increase production and storage capacity, with the strategy becoming even more ambitious since 2000, when Novoceram became part of the Gruppo Concorde, one of the world leaders in the ceramic tile industry.
In 1994, close to the first site in Saint Vallier-sur-Rhône, Novoceram lay the first stone of its future head-office « Céramiques de Champblain« . It is there that, even today, the company concentrates all activities on an area of 90.000 m2: production site, offices, logistics department and the Caroscope, a multi-functional space entirely dedicated to ceramic design.
The history of 150 years has inspired the Catalan artist Maria Corte who has brilliantly summarised them in a three-dimensional fresco welcoming visitors to explore Novoceram universe
