Authentic Material opens its luxury pilot plant near Toulouse
The SME recycles high-end waste from the luxury industry. In full growth, it has just welcomed Chanel to its capital and moved to Portet.
“We are still in the boxes! “says Vincent Menny, founding president of Authentic Material. For the past week, its fourteen employees have moved to the new premises in Portet-sur-Garonne. Chemin des Alouettes, a 600 m factory2 with black coating and a house reserved for the administrative unit brings together all the services hitherto scattered in three places. A new headquarters necessary to cope with the growth of this SME which recycles waste from the luxury industry to create new raw materials always intended for the big luxury goods.
In the still empty hangar, Vincent Menny projects himself: “Here there will be all the production: reception, sorting, grinding, shaping and storage”. Not forgetting the prototyping workshop and, upstairs, the research and development cell as well as production management.
Chanel, Hermes, LVMH, Kering…
For the time being, the raw materials are in storage: scraps of leather, rolls of fabric, bags of silk… “We are suppliers of materials. We collect waste, transform it and design new materials”. Essentially for the luxury industry. “We work with Chanel, Hermès, LVMH, Kering and Richemont”, lists Vincent Menny. Its strength has been to know how to respond to “the pain points” of this industry: better recycling of its waste, recovering it and using less petrochemicals. Authentic Material transforms animal, vegetable and mineral residues (read elsewhere) so that they can become fashion accessories, jewellery, glasses, knives, pens…
New products are created from the waste products of the luxury industry.
A mechanical engineer with a background in aeronautics, Vincent Menny created Authentic Material in 2016, “first by working with horn, then leather and then came the shift towards luxury. From the beginning, we have been supported by local partners, including the Occitanie Region and a network of companies”.
Establishments under consideration in Paris and Milan
He is now at his side with the associated capital Noémie Dumesnil, BPIFrance, the Leather Invest fund, the Giraldy company and, since May 2022, Chanel. “It’s important to keep this balance,” said the president. “We are now in the industrialization phase with the creation of this pilot plant. This means that other sites are possible, “to be closer to our customers, in Paris and Milan”.
Fundraising amounted to €5 million, 35% financed by local partners. The president foresees the point of balance for 2024, “but we are going to reinvest, he says, it is a model of organic growth: the deposit is unlimited and the potential for use enormous”. The turnover has increased gradually, from €300,000 in 2020, to €400,000 in 2021 and €500,000 this year.
A patented know-how
Authentic Material has filed eight patents, relating to the shaping of materials and the way of grinding them. Because Toulouse society can recycle materials of animal origin such as horn, leather, wool and silk. As well as the mineral: shells, precious stones. On the plant side, all perfumery waste passes through it, as well as coffee, cocoa, wood, etc.
