Savoir-faire: French group reshores denim manufacturing to France
Local media have reported that France’s Association Familiale Mulliez (AFM), the holding company for the Mulliez family, will open a denim factory in the northern commune of Neuville-en-Ferrain by the close of 2021, resulting in the creation of over 100 local jobs.
The total investment amounts to €3.5 million (around $4.3 million).
Named FashionCube Denim Center, the factory will reportedly produce around 410,000 pairs of jeans annually for six AFM-owned brands: Jules, Pimkie, Bizzbee, Grain de Malice, Orsay and RougeGorge. (FashionCube is a strategic organisation of AFM brands striving for zero waste.)
At the moment, the brands’ manufacturing takes place in factories across Asia, Turkey and Northwest Africa.
While the number of denim jeans made in Neuville-en-Ferrain will be relatively “modest”, amounting to a little less than 6% of the brands’ annual output, the factory will have capacity to make much more. Project manager for the FashionCube Denim Center, Christian Kinnen, told reporters that production will increase once the French-made denim project begins to bear fruit for AFM.
While the jeans will be 20% more expensive than those produced outside of France, the price point will remain “accessible” at around €40.00-60.00, Mr Kinnen said.
An “optimised” manufacturing process will limit the denim’s environmental footprint, a press release explained, with the jeans set to use 40 times less water than conventional methods during washing. Ozone and laser treatments will “for the most part” mitigate against conventional pollutants, furthermore.
Read more about the French denim “renaissance” (from issue two of Inside Denim) here.
Image: Bizzbee via Instagram (@bizzbee)
