Chacom pipes, a respected Jura tradition

For almost two centuries the CHAPUIS-COMOY et Cie company has been making briar pipes (from the root of a Mediterranean shrub) in the Saint-Claude area.

To reach today’s standing, recognised for tradition and quality in 58 countries, Chacom pipes — a contraction of the first three letters of the partners Chapuis and Comoy, used since 1928 — have come through every economic crisis that Saint-Claude, the birthplace of the French pipe, has known.

Today that tradition is in the hands of a trained designer who creates contemporary models while keeping faith with the craft.

For it is as a genuine master of that craft that the Comoy family, which in 1825 was making boxwood pipes for Napoleon’s grognards, saw the birth of Henry de Comoy, the founder of the brand.

The discovery in 1856 of a special treatment for briar that made it usable in pipe making turned Saint-Claude into the world capital of the briar pipe.
No other briar pipe was made anywhere else at the time, and the COMOY house became the leading manufacturer in Saint-Claude.

The war of 1870 took Henry COMOY away from his family, but it also allowed him to find his CHAPUIS cousins again in Switzerland, and so paved the way for a partnership that took effect in 1922, after the First World War.
The Saint-Claude company took the name CHAPUIS-COMOY et Cie.

In 1928 the CHACOM brand was born and, until 1939, was sold only in France, Belgium and Switzerland, so as not to compete with the Comoy pipes, which met the same quality standards.

In 1932 CHAPUIS-COMOY & Cie merged with the LA BRUYERE company to weather the severe economic crisis hitting the Saint-Claude area, and took its name.
It thus became the largest pipe company in the world, with 450 workers.
The blocks, those roughly sawn pieces of briar burl, were carried by small wagons from the drying sheds to the workshops.

From 1945 CHACOM was fully independent and set out to win markets, with a complete collection in France and Belgium from 1946 and in the Scandinavian countries, Germany and the Americas in 1947 and 1948.

In 1957, given the commercial weight of the CHACOM brand, the LA BRUYERE company took back its original name, CHAPUIS-COMOY & Cie.
In 1965 CHACOM became the leading French pipe brand in Japan.
In 1997 it was the first French group distributed in Russia and Eastern Europe.
And in 2002 the Chinese market opened.
From 1964 the first changes within the family appeared — sons, cousins — along with the first signs of a technical and commercial success that was firmly under control.

The pipe market needed younger blood, so an independent carver was brought into the company to offer handmade creations.
New models, new designs, new evolving ranges set within the Millénium — one new model every year for 1000 years — the briar pipe of the Jura will not disappear, despite the repeated pressure the tobacco trade has come under.

Perhaps that is the mark of a French tradition, of a trade that still exists and does not want to die out.

In any case CHACOM shows once again that globalisation always begins with the local.

Discover all our pipes and accessories from Chacom and other brands on our Smoking.fr site.