“We depend on the weather …”: in Rochefort, the iconic Werzalit bistro tables do not want to drink

Attention, heritage in danger. The iconic tables of bars and bistros play their survival in Rochefort (Charente-Maritime). The Werzalit group has a factory there and manufactures the famous round models there and circulated by brass that can be found in the Trocouts de Paris and everywhere in France. The crash was narrowly avoided in September 2024. Placed in receivership on December 25, 2024 to find “a second breath”, the company Rochefortaise is struggling to keep its know-how and its 46 employees.

Since then, Werzalit has straightened the bar and reorganized its production to limit the costs, assures Hervé Pottier, the managing director appointed last fall at the head of this factory. “We are no longer suspended,” says this fifties who discovered the incredible extent of stocks and models offered for sale. “Here, we only manufacture tables but in all possible dimensions,” explains Hervé Pottier.

Developed in the 1940s, the industrial process was imported into France and Rochefort in the 1960s. Since then, this factory bought by the Austrian group Werzalit has continued to make bistro tables copied worldwide. His secret? Wood chips and crushed pallets. Mixed with glue, this raw material is then molded and cooked under huge presses. Any decor – printed paper – can be added according to customer tastes.

“Vichy, black, white, gene marble … we can do everything”

“We follow the fashions. Vichy, art deco, white, black: you can do everything. But the best sold is the marble imitation of Genoa on circled tables, as in Parisian cafes, ”underlines Hervé Pottier. This know-how and the robustness of its tables have long enabled the Rochefortaise factory to differentiate itself from the pale foreign copies. But the difficulties encountered by the hotel and catering sectors ended up putting its accounts in the red.

“We designed a table made up of 70 % hemp, a first. It offers the same rigidity, the same quality while being lighter. We are still in the test phase and aim for 100 %, ”says Hervé Pottier, already imagining valuing local hemp production rather than importing wood. For the Rochefortese factory, the next stage of the receivership will be played next June. Until then and to definitively get out of the crisis, Werzalit hopes to mop up and earn new market share. Exports which already represent half of Werzalit’s outlets remain a track to dig. “The United States, Australia, Spain and Italy are working well. But there is also Africa. »»