Claire LESTAVEL

Beautiful work for a noble essence

Claire Lestavel is the administrative manager of a sawmill and planermill nestling in Faux-la-Montagne in the Creuse region of France. When asked about Ambiance Bois, she doesn’t talk about herself or her career, but about a team. In fact, she was chosen by lottery and is ‘only’ the spokesperson for a company with an original way of working. She talks about the resources, organisation and values of a company set up in 1988 by a group of scouts who wanted to work differently.

In the forest

Ambiance Bois is based on the Millevaches plateau. The founders chose a rural setting and succeeded in breathing life into the area through economic activity and employment.

Today, Faux-la-Montagne has fewer than 400 inhabitants. Despite this, and thanks to the investment of the Ambiance Bois team, the commune has managed to preserve essential facilities and shops: a nursery, a school, a grocery-bakery, a pharmacy, etc.

The sawmill site was not chosen at random. The natural resource is abundantly available in the surrounding massifs. The company’s work is therefore carried out in a short circuit, with no intermediaries: those involved in harvesting Douglas pine or larch are also the sellers of these processed species, of which they are proud.

What is SAPO?

The foundations have been laid in terms of dynamism and ethics. All that remains is to tick off the social and community dimension. Ambiance Bois is a SAPO (a limited company with workers’participation), a very rare form of company. This model was chosen by the founders because they felt that the relationship with the workforce was just as important as the quality of the finished product.

The SAPO status allows for self-management: decisions are taken collectively. Employees have a say on prices, schedules, recruitment and other matters that primarily concern them.

Salaries are the same for everyone, regardless of seniority in the company, level of education or skills. In exchange, a degree of flexibility and versatility, where possible, is expected. Of course, responsibilities are shared.

In this unusual venture, the day-to-day activity is as important as the capital invested: dividends are shared equally between labour and capital shareholders. France Active provided financial support for Ambiance Bois when it was first set up, and throughout its development, particularly for the purchase of equipment. This has enabled the sawmill and planermill to continue to evolve and adapt to new needs, without losing any of what makes it unique.