A dynasty of confectioners

Moinet House

Pastilles du Bassin de Vichy, candy canes, iced sweets, chocolates, fruit jellies, ice creams… The Moinet confectionery has been delighting the taste buds of people taking the waters, tourists and Vichy residents since 1852. Seven generations mark out this sweet history which continues passionately. A score played most often by two.

The origin of the store

Confiserie H. Moinet

To savor the many sweets of the Moinet range is to let the story of this lineage of confectioners, which began with Jules Rondepierre, unfold. In 1852, the confectioner, with the help of his wife Marie-Madeleine Moinet, opened his shop at 4, rue de la Ville de Paris. His store located at 4, rue de la source de l’Hôpital also includes an adjoining workshop, dedicated today to the artisanal production of chocolates and iced sweets, caramels, nougats and pralines. After the visit of Napoleon III, the store was renamed Confiserie de l’Empereur.

Confiserie Moinet

Art of boxing

The family store becomes an SME

Over the years, Rémi Moinet acquired his independence within the family business. He impelled many innovations that his granddaughter Elisabeth Moinet-Michaille and her husband, Gilles who run the confectionery and the company Moinet Vichy Santé, recall. “He had a strong personality, worked a lot and was always creating new sweets. His friend was Paul Devaux (an engraver and illustrator from Vichy) who designed many confectionery boxes.” Gilles adds: “He had a sense of marketing, advertising and packaging. With him, the family store became a small business. He conquered other markets than local and developed a network of wholesalers.”

Plant

La Source Roger

the origins of the pastille

In 1932, Rémi Moinet bought the Roger spring and started producing pastilles with the Bassin de Vichy logo. In the Moinet family, one always ends up putting the hand in the confectionery. Encouraged by his father, Jean-Claude, a pharmacist at the time, developed products sold in his wife Yvette’s pharmacy: “There was a complementarity between the two activities: confectionery and pharmacy. I remember that my mother would offer a bag of candy for a nice prescription. My father would pick me up from school with the Moinet van that was used to deliver iced candies, candy canes, pastilles, gum… He did it until the 80s.”

Sweet Side

The 7th generation

In 1989, Elisabeth and Gilles left Paris to help Jean-Claude Moinet. With this 6th generation, the family saga continues. In 1993, they opened a new Côté Sucré store on rue Georges-Clemenceau in Vichy. “It was at Easter. I remember, my father was transporting the chocolate moldings in a cart that he had repainted.” The couple is known for innovation, development and safeguarding the family know-how. Since 2017, one of their sons, has joined them after having made his mark, he becomes responsible for production on both manufacturing sites, becoming the 7th generation to get involved.

Sweet side

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