At the beginning, the « wolf »…
The story began in 1902 in La Monnerie, close to Thiers. Blaise Dozorme, an expert steel worker, decided to use his expertise to create a small knife-making workshop in his home. Working mainly as a subcontractor, his professionalism and keen sense of duty gained him a certain notoriety in the Thiers basin. His entrepreneurial spirit coupled with a dominant personality resulted in his peers naming him « The Wolf ». A few decades later, the Dozorme firm would use this nickname as the basis for its logo and graphic identity…
Blaise and his son Valentin
The first workshops
From father to son…
Claude Dozorme
Taken over by his son Valentin in 1934, the small workshop gradually made a name for itself, further anchoring its expertise and leaving its mark in the cutlery sector of the Thiers region. It was during the 1970s though that the family business really began to develop on a larger scale. The firm was now being run by Claude, son of Valentin and grandson of Blaise, who decided to invest massively in tools and mechanisation in a drive to expand and develop the business. It was at this time that he decided to produce knives with specific names and to market them mainly through trade shows. The Claude Dozorme brand was born at the beginning of the 1980s as was their first creation: the first Laguiole non-folding table knife. Henceforth, the pioneer of these manufacturing techniques, officially awarded the title Maître Artisan Coutelier, would strive to continuously develop the brand.
Claudine Dozorme, a cutlery manufacturer made in Auvergne
There was a new development in 1991 when Claudine Dozorme, Claude Dozorme’s daughter, took over the reins of the family business. Nothing up till then had indicated that she would one day work in the cutlery industry. In 1984, after the Baccalaureate and 2 years of preparatory studies, she was admitted to the Ecole Supérieure de Gestion de Paris (ESCP), before going on to join the Kraft General Foods agro-foods group as sales manager. She stayed at Kraft until 1991 when her father asked her to help him develop his brand. She thus took charge of the sales and marketing department, marketed Claude Dozorme knives to various distributors and ran a France-wide sales team. Development of the brand, integration of new manufacturing processes, creation of catalogues and sample products, strategic thinking on new models and materials… The arrival of this vivacious young woman would revolutionise the small family business.
The crowning achievement – on 5 December 2013, Claudine Dozorme, who also holds the Ordre du Mérite and the Légion d’Honneur, was awarded the Auvergne Personality of the Year trophy for her dynamism, creativity and innovative spirit, which have helped her forge a new economic model for the family business, at the same time introducing a resolutely modern approach.
Claudine Dozorme
DIDIER PERRET, A MAN OF CONTINUITY
Didier Perret
At the end of 2020, Didier Perret, Arts & Métiers engineer, met Claudine. Fan of beautiful objects, this creative and technician, passionate about manufacturing, ardent defender of Made in France, cherishes the same vision as Claudine on the future of La Maison Claude DOZORME. A year later, at the beginning of 2022, she sold the company to him, after having validated her project. Sharing the same values, he is eager to continue the work undertaken for decades. Didier Perret is now writing new pages in the history of La Maison Claude DOZORME, surrounded by a loyal team.