(AFP) At the David Ferrer factory, workers are busy cutting and sewing thin wooden blades to make chessboards. Made in Spain gamepads have become popular since the “Lady’s Game” series.
“We’ve never seen such a boom in demand for chessboards,” says the crowded manager of Rechapados Ferrer, a small family business located in La Garriga, northeastern Spain, in the industrial zone around Barcelona.
Interest in the board game sparked by the award-winning Netflix series and the emergence of some of its handcrafted sets in some scenes has led to a massive surge in orders that have already begun scheduling production for 2022.
“En un an, nous fabriquons environ 20.000 unités d’échiquiers. Grâce à la série, nous avons reçu des commandes pour plus de 40.000 unités et il reste encore de nombreux mois avant la fin de l’année”, se réjouit David Ferrer, 30 years.
From father to son
This small business of 14 employees was founded by its grandparents in the 1950s to provide wood veneers for furniture. It wasn’t until ten years later that they started producing chessboards.
“If my parents can see that …”, Joan Ferrer, David’s father and son of the founder, jokes.
He still sees his parents, in their beginnings, “in a small room, stitching and chopping slices of wood.”
Their sole customer was initially a neighboring chess manufacturer, then the client base expanded all over Spain and then the whole world.
Today, 98% of its products are exported, some for tournaments and world championships. It is also for this reason that they were not surprised to discover their paintings in the series.
In the final episode, when young prodigy Beth Harmon plays against Russian world champion Vasily Burgov, her eyes are fixed on the set, with an elegant black wooden frame and a grid of yellow and red inlays.
“There are very special trays, we are the only ones who make them and this tray was 100% for us,” explains Miguel Burbel, production manager.
The on-screen checkerboard was specially designed for the company’s first international client, a board games distributor in Berlin … where part of the series was filmed.
“We had already appeared in other films and series, so I was excited (…) I didn’t expect at all for this fallout,” Ferrer admits.
– The limit of perfection –
Since then, “The request has been crazy. We get emails all the time and we can’t answer them all,” notes Miguel Purple.
Orders have already started to skyrocket with the shutdown in the spring, as many have rediscovered the appeal of board games. They exploded with the chain, which required them to hire three more people.
“But to answer it, we have to double or triple the number of employees. We don’t want to go into that, because we don’t know how long it will last,” Ferrer says.
Because whiteboard making is slow and craftsmanship: a worker selects high-quality wood and cuts it into thin, long sheets of light and dark colors.
Using a machine, another craftsman sews it with a sticky thread, checking every step that no beams of light pass between them.
By cutting and gluing boards, he creates a chess net, which is then pressed onto a chipboard sheet, which is then polished before being rolled.
“We pay great attention to finishing, and we try to achieve perfection,” explains Oscar Martinez, 40-year-old craftsman.
It takes “four to five years” to train these chessboard makers, explains David Ferrer, who wants to let his company develop “naturally”.
Summarizes: “It’s a very literal job, everything takes time. It’s a job.”
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