With only fifteen employees to manufacture some 2,000 towels a day, L?Epongerie is a typical small company but is a thriving one indeed. ?We produce for hotels in the first place but our shop in Trianon has plenty of individual customers as well,? Marina Harel, the sales manager, proudly explains.

?It all started with a combination of circumstances,? she relates. Hubert de Spéville and herself, the shareholders of the company, met an Australian towel supplier in 1992. ?We talked of his business and this is how the idea came up.?

This Australian supplier has become their supplier since then. ?We receive semi-finished goods in bulk from Australia and we do the finishing in our factory in Trianon.? Two persons deal with the cutting. Six ladies, wearing white aprons and hats, are busy hemming the towels, sheets or bathrobes with their noisy machines. Finally, just before packing them in plastic bags, a young lady performs the quality control with utmost concentration and professionalism.

The goods are ready to be delivered to hotels, their main customers. Marina Harel, who also deals with the marketing, presents to potential customers various types of products from which they can choose. ?Every towel is personalised with the hotel name either on a woven label or embroidered on the towel itself?. L?Epongerie does not make embroidery part of the work. This is carried out by a sister-company managed by Hubert de Spéville.

L?Epongerie used to have three other shops in Grand Bay, Floreal Square and Port-Louis but, since they were not as profitable as expected, they have been closed. ?Since the shop in Trianon continued to be extremely profitable for the company, we preferred to concentrate on it and decided to close the others,? Marina Harel explains. The little shop is particularly known for its various creations for babies and kids. ?We make two collections of layette every year: the sheet, the bolster and the pillow are made in the same colour and with the same design.? People either buy the layettes as presents for new-born babies or the bathrobes and bibs for young children. L?Epongerie made a deliberate choice not to flood the market with their products. The towels, bathrobes, sheets, woollen blankets and pillows can be found either in hotels or in their very colourful shop. ?We consider our products as a class above and we are not interested in placing them in any super or hypermarkets,? boasts the sales manager.

L?Epongerie also sells abroad. The company exports mainly in the Indian Ocean region: Seychelles, Madagascar and Reunion. But they also sell a few products in France. And, once again, they keep to their strategy: they supply only hotels in all these countries. ?It is out of the question to make our towels available in any commercial area.? What started as a coincidence seems to have become a big and successful company for Marina Harel and Hubert de Spéville.