At the height of the Covid-19 crisis, when France had stopped, Cynthia André, she was not idle. Confinements and curfews, this Héraultaise spent them behind her sewing machine, making caps for caregivers from all over the country. “I barely saw my family! », recalls this seamstress.
The story of Chrysval, the small cap-making company she started, started long before the Earth stopped spinning. It was in 2012. That year, Cynthia André, originally from Gard, moved to Montpellier (Hérault). “Until then, I was already a seamstress, but I mainly worked as a subcontractor, for an underwear manufacturer, she confides. I was in lace. I had also launched electronic cigarette pouches, it worked very well. And in Montpellier, I lived with my aunt, who is a nurse at the Clinique du Millénaire. One day, she asked me to make myself a cap. “Cynthia André then lovingly makes a hair guard for her aunt… Without knowing the crazy repercussions that it would cause.
At the clinic, “everyone wanted one! »
Because Cynthia André’s handmade headwear is unlike any other. They are colourful, original… And personalized. At the clinic, it hit home. “Everyone wanted one! I started working like that, continues the seamstress. Then I created a website. And it grew. At the time, I was the only one to do that, in France. »
Then came the Covid-19 crisis. Orders have exploded for Cynthia André’s small business. “There were no more disposable caps anywhere,” recalls the entrepreneur. So on the Héraultaise online store, the sales do not stop. “I worked day and night,” she says. I barely got out of it. I was all alone until then. And in May 2020, I hired seven people all at once. I was in a very small room of 30 m2, I had to move elsewhere. And I invested in sewing machines! Before Covid-19, I made about 30,000 pieces each year. During Covid-19, I was making about… 60,000 a month! »
Even a famous Chinese site tries to compete with it
Cynthia André even thought, given the influx of orders, to “cut her website”. The caps were going like hotcakes. “My webmaster dissuaded me, telling me that it was an opportunity to develop my business,” she confides. I still removed some products. My husband helped me cut the fabric. “Fabric, a rare commodity, in the midst of a health crisis. “It was complicated, it’s true. The stores opened to us a little on the sly, so that we could buy from them! she smiles.
Even today, Chrysval is running at full speed. Orders are lower, of course, than at the height of the crisis, but the pace remains strong. Packages of caps leave everywhere in France, but also in the world. Four people still work today in the workshop, making headgear, but also pants, blouses or overshoes, for the medical or catering sectors. The success of the small company of Cynthia André, leader in France in this field, is such that a famous Chinese site, known for cutting prices, now offers caps at ridiculous prices, when you type “Chrysval in its search engine. “Of course, we cannot offer the same prices as them,” laments the seamstress, who sells her caps between 17 and 21 euros. But the quality is far from the same. At Chrysval, everything is made by hand, behind a sewing machine.