GENEVA — When one thinks of parts and spares for an aircraft, an industrial supply chain often comes to mind, though a partnership of several French and Italian companies are very much a part of that supply chain when it comes to serving the discriminating taste of the passengers on board.
Companies Yves Delorme, Griffe and Ercuis & Raynard have combined forces to leverage their respective individual specialties to offer a complimentary product offering aboard VIP aircraft.
Ercuis & Raynaud specialize in flatware, Griffe in glassware, Yves Delorme in linens.
The companies, three of which date back to the middle of the 19th century, have watched their business, which pre-date powered flight, evolve to provide luxury items from for royal palaces to private mega-yachts and now luxury aircraft.
Representatives from the individual companies work with the aircraft interior designers to customize every last inch of the on-board experience, down to the custom embroidery and branding of every item.
All of these products come with specialized product support, just as the mechanical components of the aircraft do as well.
Olivier Damas, director of Yves Delorme Palace, says that customers typically require 6-7 sets of linens, with one set on board, two at the operator’s base and four to give sets on routes frequented by the aircraft, with on-demand spares that can be ready in as quickly as days if required.
The ultra-high end products, often thought to be recession proof, saw a slowdown in business over the first quarter of the year, says Camille Barret, decoratrice for Ercuis & Raynaud. Though, she emphasizes that business is now bouncing back to its pre-recession levels.
Barret adds that some items on display at the show are amongst those selected by the operator of the “largest Airbus”, suggesting products in the booth could fly aboard the A380 Flying Palace.
Photo Credit Billypix – Ercuis & Raynaud’s Simona Belforte (L) and Camille Barret (R)
***Editor’s Note – Periodically throughout the show, Flight journalists go out in the hall to seek out the stories that otherwise wouldn’t be told, overshadowed by big announcements. This is an opportunity to take a closer look at lesser seen elements of the big shows. Typically, these items end up in our Flight Evening News, this was an interview I did earlier in the day.
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This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.