Fer à Cheval story

THE STORY OF THE OLDEST SOAP FACTORY IN MARSEILLE

In the 19th century in Marseille, hundreds of little manufacturers produced soap, Marseille's iconic product. For one of them, it was the beginning of a special adventure...

In 1856, on chemin de Saint-Marthe, a candle manufacturer quickly and exclusively became a factory dedicated to producing Marseille Soap... After an acquisition in 1895, the factory manufactured Marseille soap on behalf of several brands including Le Chat, and in 1953 it assumed charge of perpetuating a historic brand that since 2003 remains the factory's only representative: Fer à Cheval.

Here, we manufacture and select the ingredients to create the bases for Marseille Soap... We are at the very source of the product and pass on this know-how from generation to generation, so much so that we are now a Living Heritage Company and hold a Tourism Quality label for maintaining age-old expertise.

FER À CHEVAL, A GOOD-LUCK BRAND

In the 19th century it was customary to give your soap factory or brand an expression, word or another phrase evoking happiness and luck to make the business prosper under the best auspices. With the name Fer à Cheval (horseshoe) proudly accompanying the symbol stamped with seven nails, success and fortune were sure to be ours. And we are indeed fortunate, because today
we remain the oldest Marseille soap factory to perpetuate its production using an age-old recipe. We like to believe that this name will continue to bring us good luck.