• The glass industries have recently announced that they have to take substantial measures to deal with the rise in the prices of raw materials and energy.

  • The smallest units are not spared.

    In Biot, in the Alpes-Maritimes, craftsmen are also finding solutions to continue their activity without having to turn off their oven this winter.

At the end of September, the government announced that it was going to “extend” a support fund to “support the companies that need it the most” to deal with the energy crisis, in particular the glass industries.

While Duralex has decided to put its oven on standby for a minimum of four months, Arc has, for its part, placed part of its employees on partial unemployment due to the rise in the prices of raw materials and energy.

Choices that smaller units, craftsmen and creators must also make to sustain their activity.

In Biot, in the Alpes-Maritimes, where glass was established in 1956 and which is considered to be "the capital", Nicolas Laty, master glassmaker, makes a sad assessment.

“The profession of craftsman and glass artist is very different from what the big companies do.

Our problems are not the same.

For example, we will call on suppliers for the color.

They increased their price by 60%.

For gas, we have factors that will go up to ten times what we paid before”.

He underlines that it is difficult to imagine turning off an oven for these structures which would lose a substantial turnover not being able to respond to an unforeseen order.

"As craftsmen, we have a very low margin," he says.

Electric ovens and pooling of workshops

To overcome this crisis, which follows “too closely” that of Covid-19 for which “the State had supported us”, admits the Biotois, the mayor of the commune, Jean-Pierre Dermit, asks that “the government put in put in place an action plan to support companies and that the craft sectors are not forgotten in this system".

He adds: “The future of our human heritage depends on it.

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For their part, the craftsmen have imagined several solutions "already tested for some time" to continue their activity.

They are accelerating their energy transition and turning to electric ovens.

“It's a more flexible, smaller tool that makes work more comfortable because it makes a lot less noise, describes Nicolas Laty.

You can also follow your energy curve and control it.

The problem is that it is an expensive and fragile technology because the resistors must not come into contact with the melting of the glass.

It will still take time for there to be an evolution.

He also mentions the heat recovery ovens which make it possible to reinject the heat that comes out of the device and thus "bring heat rather than cold air".

At the same time, the "little" glass professionals are also starting to rethink their workplace.

“The glassmakers have an individual workshop, continues the craftsman.

If they are not in front of the oven, they are on the move for sale, for example.

A time when the oven then consumes without anyone working on it.

Indeed, melting furnaces do not turn off.

A movement was then created recently: the pooling or rental of workshops.

The glassmaker summarizes: “When you're not in front, you don't make a profit.

Other professionals can then benefit from it”.

More and more creators

And to create a network, a moment of sharing and exchange, what better than a festival?

Nicolas Laty is also co-organizer of the "Biot international glass festival" which has existed since 2018 and which takes place this weekend.

For him, "it's very important to get together and even more so today".

On the program, demonstrations, initiations, a parade and a concert for the general public but also an appointment for professionals and allow to "find solutions".

The co-organizer continues: “It is in this kind of event that we can have contact with a gallery to exhibit our works.

Sometimes it doesn't take much to overcome a difficulty.

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He concedes that there will "certainly be damage" in the sector but he asks everyone "to hold on".

Nicolas Laty concludes: “In the 2000s, there were eleven workshops in Biot.

Today there are four or five.

But that doesn't mean that our profession is dying because there are more and more creators.

This change will also allow an advance in technology with a real dynamism between craftsmen.

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