Chapuis-Comoy

Chapuis-Comoy is a French pipe factory carrying the names of two related families from the Saint-Claude region, and it still produces today. The company's best-known product is the Chacom brand, whose name is drawn from the first syllables of the CHApuis and COMoy surnames. The family's branch on the other side of the Channel operated as a separate company, under the name Comoy's of London.

Founding and the Merger of Two Families

The company's official history traces the start of the business to 1825, to production the Comoy family carried on in Avignon near Saint-Claude. The dominant material at the time was not briar but boxwood; the products are also said to have been sold to soldiers in Napoleon's army. Briar bowls made their way into Saint-Claude's workshops in the 1850s, and the Comoy name is counted among the pioneers of that shift.

The partnership between the two families is, according to the story handed down, traceable to Henri Comoy's (1850-1924) meeting with his Chapuis relatives, who did the same work in Switzerland, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. The idea of a partnership was only put into practice after the First World War: Chapuis-Comoy & Cie was founded in 1922. After Henri Comoy's death, the company was run by his sons Paul and Adrien, alongside their cousins Emile and Louis Chapuis; the Chacom brand, registered in 1928, quickly became the backbone of the business.

The Depression Years and the Return of the Name

The economic depression of the 1930s shook Saint-Claude's crowded pipe industry. According to the company's own records, the factory joined a 1932 merger under the name La Bruyère, becoming one of the largest pipe businesses of the day. Once Chacom's success in the French market put the company back on its feet, it reverted to the name Chapuis-Comoy & Cie in 1957. Generational change within the family continued over the same period; records note that Louis Chapuis joined the business in 1938 and Pierre Comoy in 1947.

The Grenard Era

In 1971, as the London branch went its own independent way, management of Saint-Claude production passed to Pierre Comoy's cousin Yves Grenard. During this period the company set out to gather closed or changed-hands French brands under its own roof; in 1994 the Ropp brand was added to the catalog. Management passed in 2007 to Yves Grenard's son Antoine Grenard. In 2013 the factory received France's "Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant" award for deep-rooted craft businesses; in 2016 it moved to its new facility in Villard-Saint-Sauveur, right next to Saint-Claude, which also houses a museum and exhibition space.

Its Place Today

Chapuis-Comoy is counted among the few deep-rooted pipe manufacturers still standing in the Saint-Claude region. Keeping hand-finished top-tier lines and series production under the same roof has allowed the brand to be recognized among both collectors and everyday users.