Pome Castanier, president of the Mercorne company in Langogne, winner of the Genêt d’or 2024

Pome Castanier recevra le 42e Genêt d’or. – OLIVIER SERRANO

Le 42e prix du Genêt d’or vient d’être attribué à l’unanimité à Pome Castanier, présidente de la société langonaise Mercorne, et ambassadrice du développement économique de la Lozère.

With family origins in Villefort, grandparents who operated a sawmill in Langogne, Pome Castanier naturally settled in Lozère, after a childhood spent in West Africa, then studies in Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône) as well as in Montreal (Canada).

It was at the age of 24 that she decided to take over Mercorne, a family business created two years earlier by her father and brother who had returned from Africa. Mercorne imports horns to supply the knife handle market.

“Our life is in Langogne”

Mercorne is a very original company in the world of luxury. Thanks to Pome Castanier's skills and experience, it combines the search for the beauty of the material with its mechanical properties. It thus supplies knife handles to Thiers and Laguiole but also handbag clasps to Dior.

The company's products are exported. Every day, twenty packages are shipped worldwide to some 1,400 customers. This makes Mercorne the European leader in the market for knife handle materials.

“My life is in Lozère, with my partner who chose to work in the company eighteen years ago, confides the winner of the 2024 Genêt d'or. Our life is in Langogne, where our children grew up. This Lozère life made of calm, friendships and spaces is our luxury. Many of our acquaintances have lives as hectic as ours, but this pace, in a small town in Lozère, is so much more serene and gentle."

The prize will be awarded to Pome Castanier in the reception room of the Georges-Frêche events space, in Mende, this Thursday, August 8, at 7 p.m.

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