The British company, based in Dukinfield, Cheshire, has seen an amazing reaction in the UK market since launch in 2010 and they have been increasingly in competition against traditional French chef wear brands. The adoption of the brand in France however, has always been quite small compared to the UK; many industry commentators suggest the move is quite literally a case of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’.
In order to help with the transition, all of the administration and production staff have been receiving French lessons and there is likely to be wholesale re-naming of the product lines. Some of the name changes are detailed below and will be required on any future orders;
• The Cheshire Chef Jacket will become ‘Le Alsace vested de cuisinier’
• The Oxford Chef Jacket will become ‘Le Bayeux vested de cuisinier’
• The Durham Chef Trousers will become ‘Le Bretagne Chef pantalon’
Director Ian Mitchellé stated, “We have had a tremendous 5 years manufacturing chef wear in Great Britain however, we feel that in order to expand into the world market we need to re-locate the business to the original home of modern cuisine. While this may at first be a shock to some of our longstanding customers, we hope that they can understand that sometimes small British chef wear manufactures simply need to up and move to France. We certainly wouldn’t consider it to be an unusual business decision.
Only time will tell if Olivére Harve can still remain a success under the colours of the French tricolour, although it is believed that their design team was relieved when realising that the colours were at least the same.
*Note the date - #AprilFools