Villeroy & Boch
In Lorraine in 1748, Francois Boch began the production of ceramic tableware - plates, cups, teapots and tureens, simple in shape but of excellent quality. Serial production of tableware began in 1767. In 1791 Nicolas Villeroy founded a faience manufactory and produced tableware. Since 1809, mechanized production has been operating in Mettlach - today the headquarters of Villeroy & Boch. The Boch family business flourished. By 1766, the ceramics factory "Jean-Francois Boch and Sons" was opened near Luxembourg in the village of Septfontaines. A year later, the enterprise started the serial production of tableware. In 1770, the legendary Brindille collection appeared. This classic design is still very popular and is produced by Villeroy & Boch under the name "Old Luxembourg". Loyalty to the family business turned the Boch the Elder business into a fairly large production. In 1809 Francois Boch buys the former Benedictine Abbey at Mettiach on the Saar River. In this Baroque building, he founds an ultra-modern mechanized production of tableware. He designs many of the production mechanisms himself. His inventions help to replace manual ceramic production with mechanized ones. Today the Benedictine Abbey in Mettlach is the headquarters of Villeroy and Boch. In 1836, the two earthenware magnates Boch and Villeroy merged to form a new company, Villeroy & Boch. To guarantee cooperation, they married their children, then their nephews. It is difficult to say whether these marriages were for love, but the proceeds from the merger still bring billions in profits today. The new heyday of the company comes at the end of the 50s of the last century, when three main directions were chosen: facing tiles, sanitary ware, tableware made of ceramics and crystal. Gradually, the company buys up leading European ceramic companies and turns into a powerful conglomerate: 1996 - Hungarian Mondial A.S, 1997 - a controlling stake in Italian Ceramica Ligure S.R.L., 1999 - Dutch Ucosan, 2000 - two Swedish companies were acquired, and a year later Vagnerplast spol. Sr.O.