Au Nain Couteliers

Provide food trade professionals with robust, precise and durable knives in the pure Thiers cutlery tradition. Family expertise passed down for 139 years with entirely French production respecting traditions.

The story starts with a joke. A competitor bragged about being "Le Géant du Couteau" (The Knife Giant). Gaston Saint-Joanis, a cutler in Saint-Rémy-sur-Durolle in the Thiers basin, decided to laugh it off. In 1885, he named his house "Au Nain" (The Dwarf). The dwarf and the giant. The name stuck, the giant disappeared.

Saint-Rémy-sur-Durolle sits at the heart of the Thiers cutlery basin, six centuries of tradition. During WWII, Gaston's daughter Paule took over with her husband Guy Duroux, who brought technical expertise. In 1969, their son Jean-Paul joined on the commercial side, then took charge. In 1981, he built a new production facility.

Au Nain's specialty is food trades. Not Sunday cooks, professionals. Chefs, butchers, fishmongers, bakers, pastry chefs, cheesemongers, hotel schools. Knives that survive industrial dishwashers, cut eight hours a day, resist the acidity of lemon and blood. The workshop masters every step: cutting, stamping, grinding, honing, sharpening, polishing, assembly. Only heat treatment is outsourced. About twenty cutlers work with cutlery-specific machinery.

The fourth generation arrived: Nicolas Duroux in 1996 (silverware division after acquiring Lamouroux in 2001) and Nathalie Duroux in 2002 (export). In 2009, acquiring Vorex strengthened the bakery-pastry range. EPV certified, entirely French production. An Au Nain is a tool. It cuts, it lasts, it resharpens. The dwarf outlived the giant because he made better knives, not prettier ones.