Limoges Porcelain’s Global Revival: Mergers and Heritage Preservation

MILAN — There’s a wave of consolidation afoot in Limoges, a French city where fine porcelain or “white gold” has been made since the 18th century. Kaolin, one of its key ingredients, was discovered in nearby Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche in 1760.

Demand for French porcelain tableware during the centuries that followed fueled the emergence of family-run firms and artisan workshops that shaped and hand-painted exquisite table settings for the growing upper classes. But since the turn of the millennium, companies have struggled amid globalization. One of the oldest firms in the region is JL Coquet. Based in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, it was founded in 1824. It just joined a growing number of firms joining forces with bigger companies to compete on a global scale.

International Firms Eye Storied Brands

In October, Chennai, India-based TVS Venu International Holdings Pte Ltd., the international holding company founded by businessman T. V. Sundram Iyengar, acquired JL Coquet to enhance its luxury lifestyle arm Atelier Expressions. Atelier Expressions is on a mission to elevate its tableware business, beginning with porcelain. The company also operates Khadak, an innovative Dubai-based restaurant, and is an investor in Hedon, a London brand specializing in luxury motorcycle helmets.

“By joining forces with an international group, we ensure not only the sustainability of our know-how but also the ability to innovate, to reach new audiences, and to position Limoges porcelain where it belongs: at the very heart of contemporary luxury,” said JL Coquet’s chief executive officer Sébastien Cich, who will remain in his post.

TVS Venu, which owns India’s TVS Motor Company, has a work force of 50,000 worldwide. It has also implemented modern environmental standards, including a strong focus on safety, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas reduction and waste management through a circular economy model — all from which JL Coquet is poised to benefit greatly.

The takeover marks the third big transaction in Limoges, in less than one year. In December 2024, Bernardaud, the porcelain-maker founded in 1863, acquired fellow Limoges porcelain-maker Haviland.

Like JL Coquet, both Haviland and Bernardaud share a rich history that emerged in the mid-19th century. They also share an industrial expertise unique to Limoges and its artisans. Haviland was started before Bernardaud in 1842 when David Haviland, an American trader and patriarch of the Haviland family, went in search of Limoges’ “white gold,” and traveled the Atlantic to settle in that town, where he founded his own manufacturer. Haviland said the company later counted the wife of Napoleon III, the Empress Eugénie, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, then-President Jacques Chirac and Prince Rainier of Monaco among its global clientele.

Luxury tableware and fragrance brand Tania Bulhões is another international firm that has its eye on Limoges artisan heritage. In April, the Brazilian company made its second acquisition, a production facility in Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche.

In 2023, Tania Bulhões acquired Royal Limoges, the region’s oldest porcelain factory, founded in 1797, still in operation. Tania Bulhões had been collaborating with Royal Limoges for 25 years prior to the 2023 acquisition, which, it said, made it the first non-European entity to buy into the historic artisan heartland.

Fewer Wedding Registries and More Fork Dinners

Renaud Paul-Dauphin worked for Hermès intermittently over the course of 35 years and was instrumental in building its tableware business. He is now the director of Atelier Expressions and guided TVS Venu through the acquisition. The luxury veteran estimated that in the past 30 years, family run companies in Limoges competing on an international level shrank from 40 to 50 firms to just seven. Limoges is thick with forests and fresh waterways, ideal for producing fine porcelain. Luxury brands like Hermès and Louis Vuitton have their porcelain made in Limoges by local artisans though Hermès has its own decoration plant. “There are few remaining that are able to grow a really strong brand,” he pointed out.

In addition to inflation, rising energy and shipping costs, artisan firms are also penalized by changing entertaining and dining habits. “There are various elements at play working to bring back tableware. But people eat at home in a casual way. They mix and match, eat smaller meals and host standing meals and breakfasts and brunches,” Paul-Dauphin said.

To protect the region, France’s furniture and ceramics industries came together in March to face a new chapter of globalization as an even bigger force and with a cohesive strategy. Mobilier National (furniture) and Cité de la Céramique — Sèvres et Limoges (ceramics of Sèvres and Limoges) were united under the name Manufactures Nationales — Sèvres & Mobilier National.

Its chairman, renowned archivist Hervé Lemoine, said the organization does not have data on the small and medium-sized companies in the Limoges region, which also includes small and micro artisan workshops, but they are noticing patterns.

“Economic fragility, issues of transmission and the difficulty of maintaining traditional know-how while adapting to new market realities,” Lemoine told WWD in an interview.

The Key to the Future

Appealing to more international tastes and evolving lifestyles, is part of the key to survival for the firms that remain in Limoges, Paul-Dauphin said.

“Firms need to get more eclectic,” he said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic effect turned the new generation’s attention to “perfecting” the home. It also sparked their interest in brands with more storytelling.

Elsewhere, collaborations have helped enhance the profiles of storied brands globally. Luke Edward Hall, known for his work across painting, drawing, writing, interior design, knitwear design and home decor, has become a go-to collaborator for brands looking to spice things up. He caught the design world’s attention in 2019 when he interpreted Neptune’s Journey for Ginori 1735, a fabled Italian brand that reportedly counted Napoleon I’s wife Marie Louise of Austria among its fans. German supermodel Claudia Schiffer has worked on three table ware collaborations with historic Portuguese ceramics-maker Bordallo Pinheiro.

In France, Lemoine said the new structure of the furniture and ceramics consortium provides greater visibility for Limoges firms helping them to realize their missions and facilitate future budget negotiations. Under the fortified institution, they now have an expanded budget of 51 million euros, up from 47 million euros last year, considering the combined budgets.

One of the institution’s main goals moving forward is to open a public apprentice training center in 2025 dedicated to reviving training programs for crafts that have lost their traditional teaching structures.

“This is precisely where the national manufactories have a crucial role — to support the broader ecosystem, sustain local employment and act as flagships for the entire sector. Sèvres, for centuries, has embodied this mission: a place of excellence and experimentation that continues to inspire and nurture an entire network of artisans and creative enterprises,” Lemoine concluded.