Nord'Ways: from 1880 to today
- 12th February 2016
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Interview with Mr. Chareyre:
Managing Director Nord'Ways since 1977.
« The oldest official documents date back to the 1880s ″.
At the beginning, the house was called: Manufacture Chareyre, luxury and working shoe. At the time, my ancestors were shoemakers, the doorstep opened onto the street and the shoemaker hammered the sole in front of passers-by. Until the 1st world war, the wearing of the shoe was an event, a social promotion. The 1st pair of shoes was kept for a lifetime, the shoemaker would resole it and shovel it to make it last.
Then from repair we moved on to manufacturing by becoming a shoemaker in early 1900.
From year to year, the profession and tradition have passed from hand to hand to reach my grandfather, Mr. Samuel Chareyre, whom I had the chance to know.
At that time he had a small shoe factory with about twenty employees located rue des Moulins in Valence in the Drôme (26).
For some finishing work on leathers and soles, an iron (iron) was used which was heated over embers. During the lunch break, an employee forgot his iron on the straw of a chair, the factory went up in smoke and the Chareyre factory was forced to cease its activity… All the commitments were honored, but the manufacturing in Valencia was over.
My grandfather then turned to his colleagues in the corporation of Romans and in the West of France (35/49) for manufacturing and kept the commercial part of the family business. Decorative candles
My grandfather and my father took over the marketing of comfort ranges for women and men from 1950. Personally, I started working there very young as a salesperson.
I visited shoe stores in big cities like Lyon, Marseille… and in fact all of the South East. There were few or no large stores, a lot of small and medium-sized town center shops. I offered everyday shoes, fashionable and comfortable shoes.
But when you're young, wearing a suit and tie every day, spending hours looking for parking spaces to park, carrying your suitcases of shoes, it quickly becomes boring ... I then turned to the après ski sale in Mountain ; we breathed much better there!
In the 70s, the ski industry was booming, ski resorts flourished, the atmosphere was laid back and business easy. In this setting, I met clothing manufacturers from Nordic sports, a Norwegian house, a Canadian house and an Austrian house with which I signed distribution exclusives in France. I then started selling high-end ski clothing. It was then that I reconnected with a childhood friend who had married a typical Swedish clog maker.
We worked together and I started selling Swedish clogs in ski resorts.
1977, this is the year that the Nord'Ways brand was born. We were working with a Norwegian manufacturer and we were selling 'trendy' items. Hence the Nord'Ways pun, a bit of French, a bit of English and voila!
Victim of our success, our storage warehouses were burgled, all the stock of clothing left overnight. It was the big blow for Nord'Ways, 12 years of work destroyed in a few minutes.
The hooves not having been stolen:
“I took that as a sign and I said to myself that we had to go back to our love from the beginning: The shoe”.
I have traveled a lot in the Scandinavian countries to set up partnerships with small shoe factories. There it's very nice, you walk in the forest then suddenly you come across a large farm with about fifteen people who work in the purest tradition. I selected models and composed my first “small collection” of clogs.
In 90 we made our first mailing which was called “Les Blancs”!
I took the customer files of shoe stores that we had and sent them this little documentation on my collection of clogs. It worked pretty well, and I realized that the products we were offering found takers in very specific trades: nurse, physiotherapist, chef, or… gardener.
I then asked myself a question that was essential in the development of the brand:
Is the shoe store the best distribution channel? Are there no specialist dealers?
While searching a bit, I came across a client file of resellers specializing in work clothing. Our 1st 100% prospecting mailing is gone and it was the big start! The explosion of professional footwear.
We had a staggering 20% return, in these returns we find the core of our good customers today. For me it's revealing, we haven't lost any and in addition we have made them loyal.
From there, each year we developed the range: I traveled a lot and I went to meet the best shoe manufacturers in Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Romania in order to create trusted partnerships.
We have built a commercial strategy around customer satisfaction:
- High quality technical products
- A complete range from stock
- Provide advice
It happened to me to carry parcels in the TGV so that the customer can receive his products in Paris the same day. When there is an emergency we commit to doing our best!
In 2012 we launched our collection of safety shoes for women, at the request of our customers. In order to expand our range, we have also designed a mini men's collection more oriented towards the Construction Industry. We have chosen to make high-end items, from stock (our strong point) in carefully chosen materials in order to offer beautiful, technical and ultra-comfortable. This collection having been very well received by our customers, today we are looking for the shoe of tomorrow.
We like to take up challenges, taking risks does not scare us!
The future for me is to continue to develop with our specialist clientele by always serving them better, by supporting them in their choices and even their commercial approach. Position ourselves as a technical expert, make recommendations to the end users of our shoes by making us known, recognized and appreciated in order to be even more present with our resellers.
At Nord'Ways we have always favored relationships of trust, a word is a word, we work in a good atmosphere and mutual respect.
We started from nothing and we created a brand of professional footwear from scratch; this brand has made its mark thanks to in-depth work, always keeping in mind the same values: personal involvement, integrity, respect, helpfulness, empathy, optimism and creativity. »