An exemplary trajectory

Five générations of entrepreneurs laid the foundations for

today's 'Etablissements Carré'. Marketing men ahead of their

time, they knew how to forecast and anticipate market trends

and, above all, how to adapt to them.

In a profession that they knew better than any, generation

after generation, they imposed radical changes upon their

own company that were vital for the growth upon which they

were about to embark.

In 1888, Ernest Carré, the son of a manufacturer from

Chaumont-sur-Loire (Center of france), decided to set up in

Paris and took on the challenge of developing the building

lime trade. To this he subsequently added, together with his

son Gustave, refractory materials which are aiways in

demand within thé building trade and in industry.

1925 - these were the crazy years when decoration become

highly fashionable. The company really won its colours

thanks to the intuition of Roger Carré who forecast, ahead of

time, the formidable growth in home décoration. The

company established itself in a new and booming market for

decorative tiles and traditional tiled floors. These were to

include Beauvais tiles, Auneuil tiles, Bourgogne paving and

Provençal floor tiles, enamelled earthenware tiles, borders,

friezes etc.

These everyday products were gradually abandoned, from

1955 onward, by Jean-Michel Carré who chose to spécialise

in thé top-of-the-range and customised products which were

to become thé company's spearhead and brand image.

Today, market globalisation. Carré has chosen to join faced

with the Jolies Céramiques SA group, a French industrialist

specialising in the manufacture of top-of-the-range floor tiles

(Emaux de Briare, Aurum etc.) guaranteeing the company a

certain timelessness, a greater capacity for investment and

enabling it to take up the strategie challenges of the future as

it has done in the past.

Towards 1890, the first warehouse at Quai de Valmy

Entrance hall to a mansion created,

around 1930, by the architect F. Lévy.

1937 World Exhibition, an entire pavillion is devoted to ceramics. The information board was created by CARRE