A little riddle to start. What do a pair of “Labonal” socks, a “Tschoeppé” gate, a “T’Heim” T-shirt or even a “Wienerberger” self-insulating brick have in common? Yes, all of them can be used in the House… But this is not the correct answer.
Above all, all will soon proudly display the label “made in Alsace”. This system has just been launched by around thirty companies in the region, with the support of the Local Development Agency (Adira). The same who had, in 2012, developed the “Alsace brand” recognizable by its ACoeur logo. Since then, the device has been extended to food products (“Savor Alsace”), and now therefore to all the others.
“We responded to a request from these companies which produce in the region and who wanted to show it,” explains Yves Demangel, director of the Adira dedicated pole. “There is a whole imagination of seriousness around the made in Alsace. This label will give us the opportunity to make it more visible and to prove that this image is true. “
To join the famous device, entrepreneurs had to prove that their products were seeing the light of day in the region. Their “production stages which give it its essential characteristics” must take place there, according to the official definition communicated. “Clearly, if it’s just finishing or packaging here, it doesn’t work,” says Line Dillenseger. The quality project manager at Adira ensures that there will be visits or even external audits if certain members of the label were to lie on the manufacturing sites.
“It is these precise and binding specifications that also appealed to us” reacts Jean Massé, from the Sacker and Massé workshops. This carpentry and cabinet-making business uses “only local products.” All our raw material comes from Alsatian forests and we transform it here “, he explains, delighted” to bring a signature “. He will therefore affix the new label on his furniture and soon his natural bedding. Even if the latex that will compose it will not come from the region, quite simply because it does not occur.
For products, not companies
This problem is found in other entrepreneurs, such as Jérôme Seeholtz, the founder of “T’Heim” clothing. “Yes, the cotton arrives in rolls because there is none in France, but for these t-shirts, for example, the entire manufacturing process takes place in Strasbourg. On the other hand, he will not be able to label the famous new brand on his espadrilles, produced in the Basque Country.
The “made in Alsace” is attributed to products, not to the companies themselves. It does not matter whether they participate financially in the development of the label. “We hope that it will grow in importance quickly,” concludes Vincent Forhlicher, Managing Director of Adira.