Although it is exported today all over the world, Baccarat crystal has a rich history dating back more than 250 years. It was in 1764, under Louis XV and the Age of Enlightenment, that his fabulous saga began.
To save a population threatened by poverty, the bishop of Metz decides to found a glass factory in Baccarat. It saw its destiny shift under the impetus of Aimé-Gabriel d’Artigues who transformed it into a crystal factory in 1817. In 1823, the company passed into the hands of three partners, including Pierre-Antoine Godard-Desmaret, a man of Parisian business which ensures the administration of the company. Renamed “Compagnie des verreries et crystaleries de Vonèche à Baccarat”, the company kept this name until 1848. In 1853, Mademoiselle Godard-Desmarest, the rich heiress of the crystal works, married Aldebert de Chambrun. On October 29, 1860, Baccarat filed its trademark at the registry of the Paris Commercial Court.
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Opening on the world
The number of workers is growing, allowing the development of the town but the two world wars will bring this development to a halt. The city resumed its industrial development in 1945. In 1960, Count René de Chambrun, descendant of Lafayette, succeeded his father as president of the Baccarat crystal factory. It opens the market to America, Japan and the Middle East. In 1989, the family group Taittinger bought Baccarat, before being itself bought by the American investment fund Starwood Capital Group (STG) in 2005. To meet growing demand, an unprecedented investment of 8.6 million euros was carried out in 2012 in the Lorraine plant in order to set up a gigantic new generation oven which replaced the old pot oven with 21 cells.
In 2018, the Chinese fund Fortune Fountain Capital (FFC) owned by businesswoman Jiaru Chu, known as “Coco Chu”, became the majority shareholder with an 88.8% stake in Baccarat SA While FFC had committed to invest significantly in the core business of Baccarat, its creditors – two funds from Hong Kong Tor Investment Management and Sammasan Capital – quickly suspect them of siphoning off cash. In January 2020, the loan is no longer repaid. In December of the same year, allied with three other international funds, they seized the majority of the capital of Baccarat. The rest of this already long story now remains to be written …
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