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'The French people want to save us': help pours in for glassmaker Duralex

theguardian.com

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Re: 'The French people want to save us': help pours in for glassmaker Duralex

#11

Post by INTPenis »

GuB-42 wrote: post #9
chihuahua wrote: post #3

While there is no shortage of irrelevant details, the article is very light on relevant details. What prevents the factory from staying in business? Not enough orders? The French people supposedly love this glassware and orders pour in whenever the company is mentioned. They have the factory up and running, they have employees. The workers own the means of production, what could be better than that? Why do they need…

As a French, my guess is simply that the brand is not price competitive and up until now, they didn't have the right marketing to justify the higher prices. Duralex is a beloved brand, and the French wouldn't like to see it go, but not enough to have much of an influence in the shopping aisle. The nostalgia aspect is real (ask the French about the numbers at the bottom of the glass ;) ), but it may be a negative when…

It is more expensive than for example IKEA glasses, but I swear by Duralex.

Ever since an IKEA glass spontaneously exploded on my desk.

I suddenly remembered we used Duralex at school in Sweden in the 90s, so I ordered brand new Duralex glasses and no explosions yet.

I imagine if they were being used in schools, with 13-17 year olds, being washed every day for years until they were covered in scratches, they must be pretty tough.

Re: 'The French people want to save us': help pours in for glassmaker Duralex

#12

Post by erwan577 »

The brand suffered from energy price hikes, felt particularly sharply after 2022, and its marketing could clearly be improved. Only now, after more than two or three decades, are new designs finally appearing on the roadmap.

These glasses were once ubiquitous in public middle-school cafeterias, so the emotional attachment runs deep across generations.

Re: 'The French people want to save us': help pours in for glassmaker Duralex

#15

Post by mrweasel »

GuB-42 wrote: post #9
chihuahua wrote: post #3

While there is no shortage of irrelevant details, the article is very light on relevant details. What prevents the factory from staying in business? Not enough orders? The French people supposedly love this glassware and orders pour in whenever the company is mentioned. They have the factory up and running, they have employees. The workers own the means of production, what could be better than that? Why do they need…

As a French, my guess is simply that the brand is not price competitive and up until now, they didn't have the right marketing to justify the higher prices. Duralex is a beloved brand, and the French wouldn't like to see it go, but not enough to have much of an influence in the shopping aisle. The nostalgia aspect is real (ask the French about the numbers at the bottom of the glass ;) ), but it may be a negative when…

A Danish supermarket had a loyalty program where you'd collect point and could get Duralex drinking glasses for the points. We got probably 25 of them, I don't think I'd consider buying anything else going forward, the quality is absolutely worth the minimal extra cost. You can get six for around €25EUR that is basically free.

I don't agree that they aren't price competitive, at least on normal drinking glasses.

Re: 'The French people want to save us': help pours in for glassmaker Duralex

#16

Post by jeffbee »

The article doesn't even mention that this company already went bankrupt once this century, in 2008. Like some of the other posters, I furnished my cupboards with Duralex decades ago and never needed any more. In the same way, I filled my flatware drawers with Oneida decades before Oneida disappeared, and my plates are all from some long-forgotten Swedish stoneware maker, and I bought all my furniture from a dead Italian brand at a showroom that no longer exists in San Francisco. I have a personal pet theory on this, which is that the astronomical cost of housing has squeezed out all other aspects of home furnishing from people's budgets, in a race to the bottom where the last brand standing is Ikea.

Re: 'The French people want to save us': help pours in for glassmaker Duralex

#18

Post by pfdietz »

lostlogin wrote: post #2

New products and new markets clearly help finances. Burning that much gas has got to be their major expense. Are there other way to heat the furnaces?

Glass furnaces operate somewhere around 1500 C. Electrical heating would work, but that's also quite expensive, usually even more so.

What they'd want to do is try to recover and reuse heat. In principle, there's no reason "new" heat has to be added each time they heat a batch of glass, if heat can be transferred from cooling glass back to the input materials.

Re: 'The French people want to save us': help pours in for glassmaker Duralex

#19

Post by 0_____0 »

jeffbee wrote: post #16

The article doesn't even mention that this company already went bankrupt once this century, in 2008. Like some of the other posters, I furnished my cupboards with Duralex decades ago and never needed any more. In the same way, I filled my flatware drawers with Oneida decades before Oneida disappeared, and my plates are all from some long-forgotten Swedish stoneware maker, and I bought all my furniture from a dead Ita…

The housing theory of everything, indeed.

Re: 'The French people want to save us': help pours in for glassmaker Duralex

#20

Post by card_zero »

INTPenis wrote: post #11
GuB-42 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a French, my guess is simply that the brand is not price competitive and up until now, they didn't have the right marketing to justify the higher prices. Duralex is a beloved brand, and the French wouldn't like to see it go, but not enough to have much of an influence in the shopping aisle. The nostalgia aspect is real (ask the French about the numbers at the bottom of the glass ;) ), but it may be a negative when…

It is more expensive than for example IKEA glasses, but I swear by Duralex. Ever since an IKEA glass spontaneously exploded on my desk. I suddenly remembered we used Duralex at school in Sweden in the 90s, so I ordered brand new Duralex glasses and no explosions yet. I imagine if they were being used in schools, with 13-17 year olds, being washed every day for years until they were covered in scratches, they must be…

Buy Duralex — the glassware that won't explode soon.
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