Since its creation, the French Slip has experienced difficulties, with a loss of 10% of activity each year. Despite good quality “made in France” underwear, the brand’s high prices remain too great an obstacle for the French. However, Guillaume Guibault, the creator and president of Slip français, wants to maintain his mission of 100% French manufacturing.
franceinfo : Thirteen years after the creation of Le Slip français, you lowered the prices of your products. The briefs were 40 euros. You have decided to almost halve the price, to 25 euros. Why this decision?
Guillaume Guibault: Because the economic context around us is complicated and after thirteen years, made in France still represents only 3% of clothing purchases. Of the 3 billion items of clothing placed on the market in France, only 3% are actually made in France. So we have to, as a symbol, accept this reality of being able to manufacture in France where no one does it anymore. Today, in 2024, the French want to buy “made in France”, but the real issue is the price. And there you have it, after thirteen years, this underwear bought for 40 euros, which was the underwear for Father’s Day, Christmas, gifts, our challenge is now to create an industry which has volume, which is competitive.
“Our challenge is to ensure that this underwear is the everyday underwear, for everyone in the drawer, and not just the underwear for a Christmas present. This is the goal of this new, more accessible price range. “
Guillaume Guibaultin franciffo
So your 25 euro briefs are still made in France?
That will be a lifetime. Knitting, weaving, making. It’s a point of honor. For thirteen years, we have been a mission-driven company within the meaning of the Pacte law. Our mission is to reinvent the French textile industry with panache. So every morning, before even selling a single product, we ask ourselves how we can grow, revive this French textile industry, which has lost 90% of its jobs. Textiles provided 600,000 jobs in the 90s, it’s 60,000 today.
You are therefore changing the economic model that you imagined thirteen years ago.
I didn’t come from this profession, I learned everything on the job. We built a supplier base of 80 industrial partners all over France and we said to ourselves after thirteen years, if we want to take a step forward, we have to look for a more accessible product. We originally hired nine partners across France to order 400,000 pieces, instead of the usual 4,000 or 5,000. We massified everything we did. The purchase of material is the same material, in cotton, we have consolidated the logistics, the manufacturing stations, the purchase of elastic and supplies. And it’s the same quality, I’m committed to it.
“French manufacturing will remain more expensive than elsewhere, but it is our social model that we pay for, at more than 1,500 euros gross minimum wage and so much the better.”
Guillaume Guibaultat franceinfo
We also generate less carbon. We know that French manufacturing is up to 50% CO2 in less. A t-shirt made elsewhere is ten kilos of CO2, a t-shirt made in France is five kilos. So there you have it, more jobs, more social ties and less CO2. We all agree. Now we need to find the price equation.
The business model you imagined is not working. Today, you are forced to do volume to be profitable.
After the extraordinary Covid period, we lost 10% of turnover per year in 2022 and 2023. We make just under 20 million euros in turnover, with a few hundred thousand euros profitability. But it’s fragile.
For textiles made in France, you are the first.
Exactly, we are the largest company to manufacture 100% in France. But we are a small company. If we want to have sustainability and in 20 years, a French industry is recreated, it is a heavy burden on our shoulders. We have no tax or legal support, we have the same rules as everyone else.
Of the objective of 400,000 products, 120,000 have already been sold.
Yes, I looked yesterday, it’s the population of the city of Besançon. I tell myself that we have managed to convince all the inhabitants of Besançon. There are 33 million men in France. I think we can all say to ourselves that we will be able to support an approach like ours.
How should it be done?
You need a quality product that lasts over time. A product that makes you want it, a product that is affordable and a product that is well distributed.
But afterward, would you need tax assistance from the public authorities?
The fact is that it moves slowly. We were still in Bercy to contribute to the fashion plan. Can there be reduced VAT on products made in France? Could there be special links with large retailers to encourage them to buy from boxes made in France? Can something be done in terms of public procurement? Today, whether it is the army, the gendarmerie etc., there is no indication of national preference. And in the European context, for the moment, we cannot get the stores to move. So today, in 2024, with the economic context that you know, we do not have time to wait for solutions which will arrive in several years. So we are lucid and we take action, the situation is complicated but there are solutions.
Do the solutions also involve measures to curb fast fashion? ? This is what is provided for in a text which was voted on by the Assembly, which provides for an environmental penalty.
Of course, the anti-fast-fashion law will be something positive for us. But once again, we know that the implementing decrees will take a long time. We know that these Chinese fashion competitors are very strong and very efficient. So in fact, for thirteen years, I have rather taken the opposite side. How can we implement initiatives at our local, committed, extremely popular and in the right direction? And when we see people like Duralex in other sectors, we see the fervor that there can be, that there are people who want to help companies like that, so I tell myself that it’s is possible.
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