“We are the sixth generation. I learned with my dad, I was always behind him tinkering. » The memories make him smile. Daniel, 59, and his wife Angélique, three years his junior, are at the head of Brosserie Desjardins which bears their name. A real factory whose products have been sold throughout the world for almost 200 years. However, when we arrive at the site, in the village of Cauvigny (Oise), halfway between Beauvais and Creil, the factory does not look like much.
The couple’s house adjoins several garages and sheds in which dozens of more or less automated machines operate daily. Some functioned under the hands of their ancestors, others are more recent. Daniel knows the settings for each of them like the back of his hand. Here, he manufactures around 15,000 brushes of all kinds every month, mainly for shoes, hair and industry, from mass distribution to the luxury world.