Raynaud: a legacy of excellence.

"In each collection, every piece is a different decor."

Francéclat is committed to promoting the creativity, craftsmanship and excellence of French timepiece, jewellery and tableware brands. These brands owe their success to the people who guide, shape and inspire them behind the scenes. To celebrate their valuable contribution, we are hosting a series of interviews that share insights from brand leaders.

Raynaud, is a name that has perpetuated the Limoges porcelain tradition for over a century through three generations of entrepreneurs. Raynaud creates refined porcelain, constantly searching for elegance and generosity. We meet its founder, Antoine de Rémur.

Could you describe Raynaud in three words?

I would say refinement, poetry and heritage.
Refinement is the art of detail, the pursuit of perfection. In each collection, every piece is a different decor.
Poetry is the signature of Raynaud. It is the art of combining colors and shapes. Raynaud is above all a decorator, or more precisely, a succession of three decorators across three different generations. Finally, the matter of heritage. Raynaud is a century-old house, built patiently with high standards, design after design, each adding to the previous one and reinforcing the power of the brand.

Who is behind the brand? Could you briefly introduce your team and your areas of expertise?

Organisation is a key factor in our success. In our Paris offices, the design, marketing and sales teams work side by side on a ‘project-based’ approach, whether on the brand’s collections or bespoke interior design projects for our clients. The Limoges factory, meanwhile, houses all the company’s key support functions, as well as production. Manufacturing and scheduling have recently been brought together with customer service under a single management structure to further enhance the reliability of the company’s commitments to its customers. Our team comprises people from fields outside the tableware industry, bringing expertise beyond our own specialities.

Our expertise lies primarily in decoration and the creation of forms. Our design teams devote all their energy to creating unique, timeless, refined and poetic designs, without seeking to follow trends that are more fleeting. This is how we patiently build the company’s image, its catalogue and its desirability.

What is your personal relationship with tableware?

It comes from my mother. She entertained often and set tables with remarkable elegance. She knew how to combine materials—linen, porcelain, crystal—with great finesse. There were always flowers, and she always paid close attention to the overall effect. She passed on to me a taste for beautiful things. I turned it into a career, which led me from table linen to silverware, and then to Limoges porcelain.

But beyond the objects themselves, it is the craftsmanship, the workshops and the expertise that fascinate me. They are the living heart of these houses.

What are your best-sellers?

Collections such as Trésor, Oskar and Minéral have established themselves over time. And soon, Phénix will join the range, following a very promising reception.
The starting point of the imagination of Phénix was sand, which can evoke feathers, fire, or waves, created in such a way that they suggest movement. Phénix is a collection in motion. Each piece embodies a variation, a nuance. The whole must remain fluid.
But it would be reductive to talk solely of best-sellers. The company has also built its reputation on bespoke work. Our clients — private individuals, institutions and leading chefs — come to us seeking a distinctive style and the ability to create something truly unique.

So, how does a collection like Phénix come about?

Through high standards and dialogue. Phénix is the result of nine to twelve months’ work, carried out in a deeply collaborative spirit.
Creative team, art direction, designers, marketing teams: everyone contributes, exchanges ideas and refines the concept. Each piece is conceived individually and designed with precision, until it finds its place within the collection.
Then comes the time for fine-tuning: the precision of a line, the intensity of a gold tone, the texture of a material. Everything is meticulously reworked until it achieves a sense of timelessness.

Where can one discover your collections today?

Raynaud has a boutique at 39 rue des Mathurins in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, as well as a store at the manufactory in Limoges (4 Allée Andrée Salomon, 87280 Limoges). The Raynaud collections are also on display in our Paris showroom on rue de l’Arcade, and available for purchase on www.raynaud.fr.
Finally, many retailers in Paris and across Europe have been supporting us for many years.

How does Raynaud approach international expansion? Which markets are strategic for the house today and in the future?

Raynaud is a company whose business is 80% international. No single market is more important than another, so we are aiming for the most balanced growth possible across all of them, with the hope of opening up to South America through the signing of the Mercosur treaty.

If two key challenges were to be highlighted, they would be to strengthen our brand’s visibility with new partners in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

What are the major challenges for the future?

They are first and foremost human. A house exists only through those who bring it to life. The transmission of know-how, but also of ways of being, is essential.
Next comes creativity. For while people come and go, their work endures. It constitutes the house’s memory and strength.
Finally, there is a contemporary responsibility: to ensure that centuries-old craftsmanship meets stringent environmental requirements. This involves, in particular, the construction of a new manufactory designed to the highest standards.

And your ambition?

To make the house, each day, a little more exceptional. And above all, to continue making it desirable—for those who bring it to life as well as for those who choose it, all over the world.