Florychante Ltd is ready for the end-of-year festivities. Shoppers will be able to enjoy its presents or decorations specially made for this period in its new shop in Grand-Bay. But, for the more traditional ones among us, who prefer to go to the good old factory shop in Pailles, the attractive decoration of the shop itself will put them in the Christmas mood as well. The shop in Pailles will be offering promotional prices on Thursday and Friday while Grand-Bay will be doing so between the 8th and the 11th.

?We have always manufactured Christmas products on a small scale. But this year, we?ve decided to produce more of them. We?ve realised that people like such products as they give a touch of originality to their houses during that special time of the year,? explains Kerry Hardy, the production manager.

Father Christmas painting kit

The little angels, the candles or the crib characters will certainly brighten up the house. And you can choose from the golden or bronze finish. But the most original idea that Florychante has produced for its customers is definitely the ?Father Christmas painting kit?. This is a small Father Christmas made of clay which has been fired only once so that it remains rough. It is sold with some brushes and paint so that children can paint their own Father Christmas according to their taste? And this surely helps to plunge them into the right atmosphere? and to imagine the presents they will get.

In fact, what Florychante does best is adapt- to customers, the period or even the individual buyer?s financial means? The company knows how to be flexible. And this is probably what its customers like most. ?People usually come with very precise ideas. We then send them to the know-how of our designer and handicraftsmen and we obtain something original for each customer.?

Florychante has been manufacturing decorative objects for the house for nearly 30 years.The company was founded by Chantal Theveneau in 1977 and now belongs to Fabrizio Merlo. The company has been making ceramic products and pottery since then. ?Ceramics allows you to give a lot of different colours and styles to the same product. At the end of the day, you can have the same ?burner? as your neighbour but the colour will make it very different.?

At the beginning, the target of the company was the hotel industry. But they sometimes had left-over stocks or rejects with defects that were hardly visible but which, for one reason or another, had failed the quality control at the factory. This is how the factory shop was born. Prices were affordable and people got more and more interested in the products, so much so that the company opened its second shop in Grand-Bay last month and offers the same products as in Pailles at the same prices.

More aware of their homes

Florychante products do not only make the home atmosphere nicer but they can also be useful ? a little shell holds a candle, a decorative box can be used as a table bin to mention only two.

?There has been a change in the way Mauritians see their houses. They are now keen on spending money on decoration and comfort in the home. They want it to have a special cachet.? In addition to its manufacturing activities, the company also imports porcelain from Australia. ?This is in fact a complementary range to our own products. With our ceramic products we offer colour and brightness. Porcelain is more classic, more solid. In fact, we do not do much ceramic crockery while the imported porcelain is mainly crockery.?

Florychante now employs 25 people, most of whom have been there for about 20 years. ?Not anyone can come and work for Florychante. Of course, we do produce on a large scale. We have 52 standard models used for all our products. The innovation comes from a special design or a special colour that the customer will order.? Laurence insists that the products are hand-finished, which makes every single item different from the others. ?They are the ones to give that special touch??