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FELT SPECIAL


Finished felt products >>


The factory was closed in March 2018 and as the town council was the owner of the building, they tried to find somebody to get it restarted. However, nobody saw the point in even trying. Except Sonia. “I spent ten months, from November 2018 to the summer of 2019, researching the market. The problem was that I knew nothing about hats or hat making – I worked in IT – and there wasn’t much market information available about hats. Everybody said that I shouldn’t bother about the hat body shaping machines in the factory but should just focus on hat making, as otherwise it would be too hard. My thought was that we already have hat making companies in France, and that if I was going to do the same, I would be just like everybody else. Also, I was really driven by the thought of


know-how and expertise being lost. If we had disregarded the hat body shaping machines, it would mean that we would lose the knowledge in France about how to make felt hat bodies.”


Cooperative


The factory stayed closed for two years. All the machines and tools remained on site; however, nothing worked properly anymore as the machines were between 50 and 100 years old and needed to be restored or repaired. In September 2019, Sonia had


“What disappoints me is that people know their foot size but hardly anybody knows their head size, when it is such an important part of your body”


managed to assemble an initial group of seven enthusiasts who were equally committed to getting the factory up and running again. To face the complexity of the project, together they created a SCIC (Cooperative Society of Collective Interest). In October 2019, the first workers joined the venture and became in turn members of the cooperative. Since then, more than 250 people and companies have joined them to create a capital of €350,000. This money has been primarily allocated to investments and to pay the salaries required to restart production. MontCapel has a good relationship with the town council, whose members are also part of the cooperative. As the council owned not just the factory’s building but also the equipment, instead of money, they brought a whole series of machines into the cooperative. That gave the factory the opportunity to get one production line started again. “It was a really challenging situation. When we started everything up again, people told us the machines were dangerous, as they were not secured. We had to put a whole programme in place, not just to repair everything so that it functioned but also to adjust the machines so that they were safer. We work with local companies and artisans and there is constant negotiation with the regulatory authorities, because some of the machines can’t really be modified.”


Quality


MontCapel is now in its fourth year and has had some success in getting back some of the old


customers, such as France’s oldest hat brand, Fléchet. Sonia thinks that it might


Woollen hat bodies before (left) and after pressing 54 | the hat magazine #95


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