The impact of Netflix can be felt deep in the Jura. The huge success of the series Game mrsAired on the platform since October, it has spectacularly brought back purchases of chess games. An unprecedented revival that benefited from a small artisan turnery factory in Konlig, in the Jura, which is threatening to disappear without revealing its identity. This family business, one of the last to make handcrafted chess sets in France, has increased sales fivefold since November. Something to cheer up as Brigitte Rose, the owner of the tournerie of the same name, called on Tuesday morning in Europe 1.
“I imagined closing the business discreetly.”
However, the golden age of turning, these woodworking workshops, is out of reach. “My father had as many as forty employees. I had eight or nine employees. Then with the transfers, the workers were laid off twice. Since my last dismissal in 2005, I have never been able to hire anyone,” explains Brigitte Rose.
Year after year, she and her husband continued their activities, a stone’s throw away from retirement. “I almost disappeared, because the turning factories are silently disappearing. I imagined closing the shop and closing the door discreetly,” she admits. Even this unexpected rebound, is under momentum Game mrs.
Hundreds of requests since November
Brigitte Rose has already noticed a resurgence of activity thanks to confinement. But the “recovery Game mrs Around November. There was great demand on us through our online sales site. “Then the sales explode.” Suddenly, we regularly received up to twelve requests a day and then more around Christmas time. “
The success is that small artisanal turnings cannot meet all demands. “Given that I am in great need by the media, I have so many requests that I have had to temporarily shut down my sales site. I have 200 to 300 orders in progress,” he says. Result: The delivery time has been extended until the end of April. The operator explains, “The longest is the filler, felting, and cutting of the pieces. People who order chess sets are interested in the high-end game.”
Now Brigitte Rose hopes to find a buyer for her lathe: “I am waiting for interested people to come to me, knowing that it is a job that requires a lot of personal investment.”
