® magazine 6 BERNARD VAN DOREN, 40 YEARS OF PASSION - THE FLOW PACK - THE ENVIRONMENT AND VANDOREN STAYING IN TOUCH AT 56 RUE LEPIC - ENCOURAGING NEWS - PORTRAITS - POSTCARDS - VANDO JAMS - WEB Flow Pack New Vandoren reed packaging magazine 6 Delivered factory fresh to you EDITORIAL wherever you are. am proud to offer you this edition for two reasons. Not only does it Icelebrate my forty years in the firm, it also confirms a new era in terms of packaging: the “Flow Pack” era. Since 1967, you will recall, we have been modernizing all the time. Productive output (machinery and innovative advances), personnel management (acqui- ring greater social benefits for our staff) and the long-term development of quality products (efficiency and reliability tied to a respect for the environment) have been my constant concerns. Reeds being very sensitive to external factors, our first task was to stabilize hygrometric conditions within the factory. Then we could begin work on the “Flow Pack”, airtight pac- kaging that now enables reeds to be kept for as long as possible in the same perfect condition as when they come out of the atelier. I see this “factory fresh” concept as a major advance for musi- cians. Moreover, we developed the concept to the full by going for individual packaging. Now each reed reaches the final customer in a state of remarkable freshness. I wanted to free musicians from any material and secondary constraints, any hindrance to their own creativity and freedom of expres- sion. Bernard VAN DOREN Bernard Van Doren, S 40 years of passion ............ 4 R Registration of copyright: November 2007 The Flow Pack .................... 7 Director of publication: Bernard Van Doren E Environment ...................... 9 Chief editor: Anne-Sophie Van Doren, with the collaboration of Jean-Marie Paul. T Staying in touch .............. 10 Creation and realization: Christophe Hauser / La Maison. Tel: 01 44 90 02 20 / [email protected] P Encouraging news ............ 13 English translation: Jeffrey Grice A Portraits .......................... 14 Cover design : Nadine Marchal - Photos : Vandoren. Postcards ........................ 18 Vandoren – 56, rue Lepic, 75018 Paris. H Tél. : 01 53 41 83 00 – Fax : 01 53 41 83 01. Vandojams........................ 21 Email : [email protected]. Web site : www.vandoren.fr C Web sites.......................... 22 www.vandoren.com 3 40 YEARS OF PASSION B ERNARD V AN D OREN, MANAGING D IRECTOR What major changes have see, the secret of a good and 5 reeds on either side. fication, have required occurred since 1967? reed lies in the cut. Then This was the first modifi- recruiting twice as many I came into the business we started using tungsten cation. The advantage was staff. What’s more, if we on April 7th, 1967. At the carbide which only had to that this box was exactly wanted to package all time, the firm had a staff be changed every 1000 the same size as the card- these reeds, we also had to of 45, manufacturing 800 reeds. board boxes. protect them. That’s when reeds a day. Recruiting Since 1967, moderniza- Jacques Llorente developed personnel was tough back tion has never stopped. the protector. In this way, then: most people wanted Monsieur Franck helped “The secret without anyone touching to work in a bank. We had design new machines. All reeds, they could be pack- to hire laborers from those new prototypes had of Vandoren aged like in a packet of Yugoslavia who turned out to be constantly ameliora- cigarettes. This led to the to be excellent. At the ted for us to attain the reeds is that blue box. Annoyed by the time, specialized work was exceptional precision and yellow and violet box, too an honorable profession, regularity of today thanks “retro”, I designed a blue skilled labor implying a to our mastery of the most they are very one with two strips recal- certain know-how. But we advanced technologies. ling the mark’s original had to modernize because fine on the yellow and violet. I also it was hard to transmit Has packaging changed too? created our logo represent- knowledge: there would be In terms of packaging, at outer rim with ing, as well as a V, a styli- disparities from one to the the time we used to lay zed reed and mouthpiece. other, especially in terms reeds flat in a little card- a solid vertebral But now boxes were twice of selection. Anything able board box which could as large, which posed to be mechanized simply lead to deterioration. The column inside.” other problems. Manufac- had to be. Every 200 secret of Vandoren reeds is turers were saying: “you’re “ We form a reeds, we would reset the that they are very fine on taking risks in changing machine, but inevitably in the outer rim with a solid something that works a different way. We were vertebral column inside. When did you develop the well”. In the beginning the using steel from Sheffield This was when I thought of protector? protector was violet in that we hardened with the plastic box with a Increased reed manufactu- color but since you great Bunsen burners. For, you separation in the middle ring would, without modi- couldn’t see the reed family” Bernard Van Doren, celebrating 40 years as managing director of the business, talks in an interview with his daughter Anne-Sophie, about the process that led him to develop the Flow Pack in 2007. 4 5 the FLOW PACK solutions: using some to came out of the factory. maintain factory tempera- This was the “factory ture through floor heating, fresh” concept. A Vandoren and the rest as compost breakthrough we for the cane-fields. As the pushed even firm developed, we had to further by have find automatic systems packing to listen to Flow Pack that left workers free for each reed people. Ulysse Delécluse, other tasks. Every manual individually. a friend of my father, said “This year the operation was mechani- In this way, each reed about the B45: “but you’re zed, but might I add that reached the final customer not going to let that Revolution new model no-one was laid off as a in a remarkable state of mouthpiece come out!”. consequence. Then we freshness. Because it was radically is even finally installed constant different. You should never “ What in your opinion Between these interviews, considerable technological advances occurred with regard to hygrometry in the factory do things by halves. The these very factors, and Vandoren, with the collaboration of scientists and musicians, is more are the factors that most proud to have contributed. so that the reeds were “As the firm Optimum mouthpieces affect the reaction of a reed?” ergonomic, always in good shape. But (AL3-AL4) for alto are very Temperature, season, and Thanks to a hundred years of know-how in the fields of agriculture and technology, clarinetists and saxopho- developed, different from the A27 and Vandoren developed its own machines, capable of exceptional precision (tolerances of less above all, differences than 1/100th of a millimeter). Methods for selecting reed strengths were constantly being with a nists buying them two to the A28; it serves a range in humidity. refined with the help of electronics. The last stage was coming to terms with the fact that six months later in over- we had to find of musicians who do not both cane and reed continue evolving in themselves, in an atmosphere that also varies from rounder form.” play our mouthpieces. one day to the next. This is why Vandoren, since the beginning of the 21st century, began heated shops were some- automatic Marcel Mule, times unsatisfied. We Especially since in the to stabilize the degree of humidity in its factory and warehouses, night and day, 7 days a Honorary professor week, with an optimal humidity ratio of 45 to 70%, which is what we advise our musicians through it, we made it began putting reeds in systems that saxophone world, lots of of saxophone at the to do (something they can now control with our hygrometric kit, “Hygrocase”). colorless. This year the new airtight Tupperware®-type gurus touch up mouth- Paris Conservatoire model is even more ergono- boxes, with effective left workers pieces, there’s absolutely (Vandoren interview at Minutely controlled in this way, the whole reed manufacturing process can contribute to the beginning of the 90s) the regularity of the final product and reach a new degree of quality excellence. Which has mic, with a rounder form. results. And from this no regularity in the mate- Published in 1999 in been confirmed by musicians testing production samples. free for the Vandoren magazine n° 1 developed the idea of the rial. I ask musicians to try Available on www.vandoren.fr Tell us about innovations “56 rue Lepic” box and other tasks.” out mouthpieces: it’s like But there remained one obstacle to assuring the transmission of this fabulous tool to musi- linked to the cane itself. in the fashion industry, cians all over the world: a guarantee that transport or storage conditions would not damage a then the “Flow Pack”, quality so painstakingly obtained, from the initial packaging and departure from the factory We have only ever used airtight packaging designed you work in an atelier and “ For me, this Flow Pack reed to the moment of reaching the final customer. For, despite taking precautions, you can never highest quality cane for to maintain reeds as then you have a showing. be completely sure of either transport (by sea or air notably) or storage conditions. our reeds. So discarded perfectly and as long as For final touches, I listen is terrific.