https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/22/french-people-want-to-save-us-help-pours-glassmaker-duralex [p] Skip to main contentSkip to navigation Close dialogue1/8Next imagePrevious imageToggle caption Skip to navigation Print subscriptions Newsletters Sign in US[ ] * US edition * UK edition * Australia edition * Europe edition * International edition The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian [ ] * News * Opinion * Sport * Culture * Lifestyle Show moreHide expanded menu * [ ]News + View all News + US news + US politics + World news + Climate crisis + Middle East + Ukraine + US immigration + Soccer + Business + Environment + Tech + Science + Newsletters + Wellness * [ ]Opinion + View all Opinion + The Guardian view + Columnists + Letters + Opinion videos + Cartoons * [ ]Sport + View all Sport + Soccer + NFL + Tennis + MLB + MLS + NBA + WNBA + NHL + F1 + Golf * [ ]Culture + View all Culture + Film + Books + Music + Art & design + TV & radio + Stage + Classical + Games * [ ]Lifestyle + View all Lifestyle + The Filter + Wellness + Fashion + Food + Recipes + Love & sex + Home & garden + Health & fitness + Family + Travel + Money * Search input [ ] google-search Search + Support us + Print subscriptions + Newsletters + Download the app * + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Licensing + Live events + About Us + The Guardian app + Video + Podcasts + Pictures + Inside the Guardian + Guardian Weekly + Crosswords + Wordiply + Corrections + Tips * Search input [ ] google-search Search + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Licensing + Live events + About Us The classic Picardie glasses on display at DuralexView image in fullscreen The classic Picardie glasses on display at Duralex Photograph: Magali Delporte/The Guardian 'The French people want to save us': help pours in for glassmaker Duralex The classic Picardie glasses on display at Duralex Photograph: Magali Delporte/The Guardian The brand, which evokes nostalgia and pride, hit its EUR5m fundraising target within hours and orders have soared By Kim Willsher in La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin Sat 22 Nov 2025 07.00 EST Share Drop a Duralex glass and it will most likely bounce, not break. The French company itself has tumbled several times in the past two decades and always bounced back, but never quite as spectacularly as when, earlier this month, it asked the public for money. An appeal for EUR5m (PS4.4m) of emergency funding to secure the immediate future of the glassworks took just five hours and 40 minutes to reach its target. Within 48 hours, the total amount pledged had topped EUR19m. Francois Marciano, 59, the director general of Duralex, said the response had astonished everyone at the company. "We thought it would take five or six weeks to raise the EUR5m. When it reached nearly EUR20m we had to say stop. Enough," he said. Man holds orange glass tumbler.View image in fullscreen Francois Marciano, chief executive of Duralex, holds up a Picardie glass. Photograph: Magali Delporte/The Guardian As a staff cooperative, EUR5m is the maximum Duralex can accept in public investment under financial rules. Beloved French brand Mention Duralex to any French person and they will be transported back to childhood and a school canteen. The brand evokes a mix of nostalgia and pride and is a symbol of French patriotism and industrial savoir faire. "We're like Proust's madeleines," Marciano said. "The French people want to save us. They are fed up with factories closing and the country's industries declining." At the Duralex factory on an industrial estate in La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin on the banks of the Loire just outside Orleans, Marciano says he and his colleagues are "floating on a cloud" after the appeal. Eighteen months ago, Marciano oversaw a staff buyout of the company, which had been placed in receivership for the fourth time in 20 years. Today, 180 of the 243 employees are "associates" in the company. Suliman El Moussaoui stands next to machinery.View image in fullscreen Suliman El Moussaoui, the leader of the CFDT union at Duralex. Photograph: Magali Delporte/The Guardian Suliman El Moussaoui, 44, a union representative at the factory where he has worked for 18 years, said the appeal had prompted "a tsunami of orders, so many that we're struggling to keep up. Every time the company is mentioned on the television or radio we have more orders. It's been amazing." Inside the factory, a simple but magical alchemy takes place. A mix of sand, soda ash and limestone, the exact proportions of which are a closely guarded secret, is heated in a vast overhead oven to 1,400C. Glowing globs of molten glass drop into iron casts that are blasted with a flame of gas. The red-hot glass is instantly pounded into shape, sprung from the mould, snatched by metal pincers and placed on a conveyor belt. Glass tumblers are carried and dropped by factory machine.View image in fullscreen The iconic Picardie glasses coming out of the 1,440-degree oven Photograph: Magali Delporte/The Guardian Duralex production video The process has changed little since Duralex - which is said to take its name from the Latin expression Dura lex, sed lex, meaning "the law is harsh, but it is the law" - opened in 1945. When the Guardian visited, the production line was turning out small clear glasses in the Provence range. A worker operates machinery.View image in fullscreen Workers in the factory starting a new production of glasses. Photograph: Magali Delporte/The Guardian A worker holds a glass up to the light.View image in fullscreen Each glass is carefully inspected. Photograph: Magali Delporte/The Guardian A worker brandishing tongs lifted a glass to the light to inspect it for faults. During a production run, more than a dozen samples of whatever is being made - glasses, plates, bowls - will be randomly removed and subjected to stress tests. In the quality control room, they will be heated to 150C then plunged into cold water to see if they resist a thermic shock, and dropped from the height of a kitchen counter on to a metal sheet to see if they shatter. They will be tested for stackability and then weighed and the glass thickness measured. If they pass, they are thrown in a bin and the production line is given a thumbs up. If they fail, everything stops and the machines are recalibrated. 'The ultimate drinking vessel' It is not known who invented the company's trademark Picardie glass, the tumbler used in school canteens with a thick curved rim and semi-fluted shape that first appeared in 1954. The British design guru Patrick Taylor has ranked the Picardie alongside Levi's jeans and the Swiss Army knife as an icon of modern design. Taylor describes it as: "An object whose form gives the impression it was discovered rather than designed. It is the ultimate drinking vessel created by man, and of its type cannot be improved." Production of the iconic Picardie glassesView image in fullscreen The instantly recognisable Picardie glasses. Photograph: Magali Delporte/The Guardian Duralex says its glass is microwave, freezer and dishwasher-safe and will not turn cloudy or lose its colour, which is in the glass rather than on it. When they do break, Duralex glasses shatter into small pieces rather than shards, reducing the injury risk. Joel Cardon, 59, who has worked at the factory for 35 years, said the soaring cost of gas and electricity were the firm's largest and most worrying expense. On his screen, the oven containing the liquid glass showed a temperature of 1,440C. It can never be allowed to cool or the glass will solidify. Another screen showed the factory was using 360 cubic metres of gas an hour. According to the regulator Ofgem, the average UK house uses 97.3 cubic metres of gas a year. Glasses in front of window into factory.View image in fullscreen Duralex's oven, in the background, is held at a temperature of 1,440C. Photograph: Magali Delporte/The Guardian Last weekend, potential investors were asked to come good on their promises on a first come, first served basis. They will be issued with securities that pay 8% interest over seven years but give no company voting rights. The maximum investment was set at EUR1,000. "We want to involve as many people as possible but with almost EUR20m in pledges obviously some people will be disappointed," Marciano said. Since the company became a staff cooperative, turnover has increased by 22% and Marciano said he hoped Duralex would be breaking even by 2027. The EUR5m raised will be used to modernise the factory and develop new products. These include a partnership with the Elysee presidential palace shop to sell a set of three of its Gigogne glasses in red, white and blue, marked RF for Republique Francaise. Three glasses with red, white or blue bands. Set of 3 Gigogne glasses in Tricolor, advertised online for EUR24.90 Photograph: boutique.elysee.fr Duralex plans to commission moulds to make "pint" glasses with a measure line for British pubs and bars and the US, both regions identified by the company as untapped markets. "Selling abroad is more difficult because there isn't the same nostalgia for Duralex as there is in France," said Vincent Vallin, the head of strategy and development. "Interest in the company is high and this is positive, but now we have to focus on increasing sales." 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