Last year, the Airplum brand, which produces slippers made in Dordogne, was at the Salon du made in France in Paris “a little by chance”. “We were offered a place at the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region pavilion. We accepted without really knowing what to expect. says Frédéric Guiral de Haas, the director of this company which sells 500,000 pairs per year. He took two members of his team with him, and all three settled in, slippers on their feet, at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
“The experience was so rich and exhilarating that in 2024 we rushed as soon as registration opened to get a place. » The meeting with his peers created a positive emulation whose effects continue today, since the first edition of a Slipper Day was born on October 26. For its return this year, from November 8 to 11, the Made in France Show will bring together 1,000 exhibitors from the fashion, gastronomy, beauty and tourism sectors…
“Buying local involves a crucial ethical dimension” (Pauline Folcher, marketing researcher)
You earn your place for this high mass of made in France when you can justify that your products have been manufactured for a significant part (and not 100%) in the country. In addition to the media visibility it offers, this event constitutes a unique opportunity for meetings. First with customers: “We learn their expectations, but also how we should talk to them about our products,” confides Frédéric Guiral de Haas. But also with the distributors who also come to the show.
For this 12th edition, professional buyers from Taiwan, Korea, Japan, the United States and Canada were invited. A new grand prize, that of export – to which Airplum is named – has also been added to the five already existing. “International is a major issue”, insists Fabienne Delahaye, founder of the salon. A strategy that is all the more essential given that, in recent years, the rise in the cost of raw materials and the price of energy has weakened French producers. So, to remain competitive, some companies rely on volume or cut costs and margins.
Relocation: Breton companies invited to take advantage of the local purchasing index
But although made visible by certain policy communication actions, such as that of former minister Arnaud Montebourg in 2011-2012, the made in France industry suffers lastingly from foreign competition with lower manufacturing costs. According to an INSEE report published in October 2023, the share of tricolor products in the manufacturing industry fell from 82% in 1965 to 38% today. In the textile sector, it represents barely 3% of clothing placed on the market.
However, Fabienne Delahaye wants to be optimistic: “More and more French people understood that deindustrialization was harmful to the country. They know that buying made in France is the best way to preserve jobs, know-how, the environment, but also to create wealth in all territories, to preserve our social and retirement system and to fill our abysmal trade deficit. » The founder of the show cites as witness the attendance of the show itself, which amounted to 15,000 entries (and 78 companies) at its creation in 2012. Twelve years later, 100,000 visitors (and 1,000 exhibitors) are expected for this edition.
