Good news for the Parisian diamantaire Rubel & Ménasché: the company has been attributed the French Living Heritage Company (EPV) label for the second time. This distinction, awarded by the French state, honors the workshop cutters’ technical mastery of traditional know-how, as well as the excellence and innovation of the associated industrial processes.
“The audit is long and very demanding” explains Géraldine Sakon, Depuy CEO of Rubel & Ménasché. “The requirements to obtain this second certification proved to be even higher than the first time.”
The diamond company had effectively already obtained the label in 2013. The EPV label—French Living Heritage Company—, created in 2005, is a French state initiative, awarded by the Ministry for the Economy and Finances, and which “rewards French firms for the excellence of their traditional and industrial know-how.”
What is being rewarded therefore is a “very high-quality” technical mastery, the capacity to reproduce artisanal and traditional gestures whilst employing them in current and innovative methods and processes. Today, around 1,400 exceptional French firms hold the EPV label. Among them are companies active in the fields of art, industry and gastronomy, such as carpenters, goldsmiths, ceramicists, but also coachbuilders, Champagne winemakers and, of course, jewelers.
Applying for the EPV label and subjecting one’s company to this strict audit is a voluntary step by companies concerned with representing French excellence. For Rubel & Ménasché, an outstanding diamond company, this step is a natural one, and “corresponds perfectly to the House’s strong commitment”, explains Géraldine Sakon. “In France, there is no training for the profession of diamond cutter. So training them in-house in our re-cutting workshop corresponds to the values that we wish to embody and convey: transmission, excellence, the willingness to perpetuate unique know-how …”
Moreover, the cutters in the Rubel & Ménasché re-cutting workshop follow ongoing individual and collective professional development courses and aim to improve the quality of their gestures on a daily basis.
After having submitted its application and answered a very focused and targeted checklist, the company’s know-how and processes were audited by two experts commissioned by the label.
All of the skills of the cutting workshop, which was founded in 2005, were examined in minute detail and at length: cutting a rough diamond into a polished diamond, re-cutting on a piece of jewelry or to design (calibration), the capacity to create extraordinary new shapes or cuts, adaptation to new setting techniques, but also the repair and optimization of the clarity and the cut of a diamond. The high-precision machinery (SARINE) and available technical tools were also “auscultated”…
The cutters (including one with the title of MOF—“Best Craftsman in France”) and the entire workshop team, as well as management, were audited. The dossier was then submitted to an independent commission, which gave its decision a few months later.
On February 12, 2019, Rubel & Ménasché was officially accredited EPV for the 2nd time. This means recognition, honor and joy for the diamond company, which thus proudly flies the colors of its profession and of France.
What will this renewal of the EPV label for 5 years imply for Rubel & Ménasché in the future? “We will give ourselves the resources to remain at the highest level and ensure that our process of continuous improvement is always more efficient; we will continue to promote excellence and train our cutters in-house; we will prevail with encouraging traditional know-how, innovation and creativity,” concludes Géraldine Sakon.
Source Rubel & Ménasché
