Celebrates its 100th birthday!

Maurice Chabé, a visionary with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, came home from the Great War and decided to serve clients in luxury Parisian hotels during the roaring twenties.
Backed by the experience of his father, who had owned a handful of hansom cabs, Maurice bought his first car in 1921 and drove it himself.
The “Établissements Maurice Chabé” company grew little by little throughout the 20th century and went on to become the Chabé Group.

100 years later, Chabé is now the expert of bespoke journeys, working in a range of different sectors and all over the world at any one time.

100 years later, Chabé is still managed by a member of the founder’s family with the same aim of providing a high-quality service for influential clients.

In 1929, Maurice Chabé witnessed the creation of the Clefs d’Or, the professional association of hotel concierges.
Chabé’s commitment has never stopped since.

On the occasion of Chabé’s 100th anniversary, Dimitri Ruiz, President of Les Clefs d’Or, tells us more about the professional association, but also about the Conci-erge profession and the relationship with Chabé for over 90 years.

This centenary is also an opportunity to (re)discover the history of the Clefs d’Or association:

“In 1929, Pierre Quentin, concierge at the Ambassador Hotel in Paris, decided to create an association of men working in the same profession: “Concierges d’Hôtels”, then called “Portiers des Grands Hôtels”.

The aim of this association was to unite the doormen of France in order to facilitate their relations and communication, but also to reflect on working techniques and to develop the profession. In France, the association took the name of Les Clefs d’Or France.

The Association experienced significant growth until the Second World War. After being dormant, it was revived after the liberation, under the impetus of Ferdinand Gillet, and developed throughout Europe.

In 1952 a European Union U.E P.G.H., grouping 9 sections, was created.

In 1970, with the admission of Israel as the 16th section, an international association was created: U.I.P.G.H., which was later renamed the International Union of Hotel Concierges (U.I.C.H), and now has 43 sections and more than 3,600 members throughout the world. Its growth continued from then on and many countries worked to join the association.

In 2009, the Association Les Clefs d’Or France celebrated its 80th anniversary. It now has nearly 400 members in France and over 4,000 members worldwide.”

To find out more, visit the association’s website: www.clefsdor-france.org/presentation

In 1947, Chabé signed its first contract with a prestigious client, the Hotel Plaza Athénée Paris, which has remained one of our most loyal clients ever since.
Our mission is not to transport a client from point A to point B, but rather to ensure that the hotel’s clients feel as if they have arrived at their destination the moment they get into their vehicle.
A guest’s first and last impression of a hotel begins and ends with the transport.
This is why Chabé works tirelessly to offer its hotel guests an outstanding transport experience to match the hotel’s prestige.

On this occasion, François Delahaye, General Manager of the Plaza Athénée Hotel, tells us more about the 75-year professional relationship between Chabé and the Plaza Athénée and luxury hotels’ expectations for their transport providers.

This centenary is also an opportunity to (re)discover the history of the hotel via their website.

In 1959, when Maurice Chabé died, his daughter, Eliane Lo Jacomo, took over the reins of the company

From an early age, Eliane Lo Jacomo was involved in managing the company, which became Etablissements Maurice Chabé in 1953. She took over as head of the firm in 1959.
Her arrival modernized Chabé’s image, with the first visual identity created for the family business in 1976.

In 1991, two years after the arrival of Agnès Lo Jacomo, the founder’s grand-daughter, the company bought the Verjat company and was renamed Chabé Verjat, leading to the Group creating its first logo in 1995.

Today, Chabé has decided to break away from the traditional codes of the private transport company to assert a strong identity, reflecting its ambitions for the mobility of tomorrow.

32 years after the arrival of Eliane Lo Jacomo, it was the turn of Agnès Lo Jacomo, the founder’s grand-daughter, to lead the family company, which has managed to grow, while maintaining a universally recognised quality of service.

Since its creation in 1921, Chabé has never stopped growing.
Here is a look at the group’s geographical expansion over the years.

It was only 56 years after its beginnings in Paris that Chabé, then known as Chabé Verjat, began its expansion with the opening of a first agency in Cannes in 1997.
The following year, a new office was opened in the City of Lights (Lyon). In 2005, Chabé decided to set up its third branch in the south-west, in Toulouse.

From 2011 onwards, Chabé’s geographical development accelerated with the opening of 6 new offices in France: Biarritz, Bordeaux and Marseille (2011), Courchevel (2012), Megève (2017) and Saint-Tropez (2020).
At the same time, the acquisition of a Swiss company in 2012 and the opening of an office in Monaco in 2019 marked the group’s international debut.

In 2020, the opening of a new office in London boosted Chabé’s presence in Europe and marked a new stage in its international development. Chabé is now present in 13 cities in Europe and offers its services in 100 countries.

The fourth generation is represented by Guillaume Connan, Maurice Chabé’s great-grandson. He began as Managing Director of the Group in 2014, and in 2020 was named President of Chabé, bringing innovation and modernity alongside his mother as President of the Strategic Committee.

1921 – 2021: Chabé celebrates its 100th anniversary!

Guillaume Connan , great-grandson of Maurice Chabé and President of the Group, imagines the future of the company in the coming years.