The Model A chair is an icon of industrial esthetics. Its unfailing popularity since 1934 has been recognized and Model A is part of collections of international museums such as : MOMA in New York City, Vitra Design Museum in Germany or the Pompidou Center in Paris. This mythical chair, crafted from sheet metal, became an emblem of fool-proof solidity, unequalled lightness, easy maintenance as well as reasonable price.
All merit goes to Xavier Pauchard (1880 – 1948), a pioneer of galvanization in France, who on the eve of the Great War, becomes the farsighted and ingenious head of a successful industrial unit of galvanized household products which, at the time, embodied household comfort. In 1927, he registered the trademark TOLIX, while converting to the production of chairs, armchairs, stools and metal furniture.
Rust-resistant, robust and stackable, the different models conceived by Xavier Pauchard are an immediate success : indoors in factories, offices and hospitals, as well as outdoors, on café terraces and in public parks. Embarked on the Normandie ocean liner, in 1935, these chairs also filled the aisles of the 1937 International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology in Modern Life. In 1937 a line of children’s furniture was created under the mark “La Mouette”. At the end of the 50’s, Xavier Pauchard’s son, Jean succeeds him as head of the business and TOLIX and its 80 workers produce around 60 000 units per year. The prosperous company remained in the same family until 2004.
We owe the revival of the brand TOLIX to Chantal Andriot. It was by passion as well as fidelity to the company, that this former financial director of the firm bought back TOLIX. The only woman in a man’s world, and with her knowledge, she was able to give back a new vitality, in perpetuating the dual standards of quality and innovation to an industry skilled in the making of functional furniture. Today, half of TOLIX’ annual turnover is made at export, half of which is made in the United States of America.
The company has now extended and is equipped with the latest manufacturing process in order to protect the environment. The company also invested massively in the latest computerized technology to go along the numerous inherited manual processes and the equipment. In 2006, TOLIX received the well deserved label “A Living Heritage Enterprise” awarded by the French Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industry. It was renewed in January 2012, when the Minister in charge of Commerce came in person to give the award to the company.
This distinction is the proof that TOLIX maintains today high performance as well as authentic and technological standards. It is also an acknowledgment of its attachment to esthetically qualities and a territory.
