Rampal Latour has been making Marseille soap in cauldrons in Salon-de-Provence since 1828. Five generations of master soap makers followed one another until the soap factory was taken over by Jean-Louis Plot in 2004.
It all began in 1828, when Pierre Rampal became a Master Soapmaker at the Court-de-Payen soap factory in Marseille, the historic heart of the eponymous soap. His heirs then settled in Salon-de-Provence, a city that itself became the "soap capital" from 1873, with the arrival of the railway boosting the trade of oil, soap, and green coffee. Among these heirs, a grandson, also named Pierre Rampal, worked as a Master Soapmaker at the Gounelle soap factory, then as a producer of soaps and oil under the brand "La Côte d'Azur." In 1900, at the Paris Universal Exhibition, he won a gold medal: it was the Belle Époque, and this global recognition launched the first truly family-owned brand.
In 1907, Pierre opened the doors of the Rampal-Fils soap factory at 71, rue Félix Pyat in Salon-de-Provence, the address where the soap factory still produces today. This period corresponds to the city's golden age: awarded at the 1900 Universal Exhibition for its flourishing trade in oils, soaps, and coffees, Salon became the leading soap-making center in France after Marseille. There were then several dozen soap factories, an industrial fabric that an earthquake in 1909 would severely test, destroying several workshops.
One hundred years after the opening of Rue Félix Pyat, René Rampal, grandson of Pierre Rampal and then 87 years old, passed on his entire know-how to Jean-Louis Plot. The encounter between the two men is described as a genuine, almost filial bond: René Rampal shared with his successor the recipes carefully preserved by his family for nearly two centuries. This transmission gave birth to a new brand: Rampal Latour, guardian of authentic know-how.
Jean-Louis Plot did not become a soap industrialist by chance: trained at AGRO then HEC, and having worked at the World Bank and Mars Food, he was 35 when he took over the company with his family. What drives him goes beyond merely taking over an SME: he has an ambition he summarizes in one sentence, "to improve people's lives." Convinced of the uniqueness of Rampal's know-how and the authenticity of its artisanal production, he has, with a team that has grown ever since, built the development of a house that is both faithful to its roots and oriented towards new markets.
Since 1828, each generation has made its own contribution, both as artisan and creator. In 2016, the soap factory opened a modern factory in Salon-de-Provence, designed for the complete production of Marseille soap. And in 2024, the story took a new turn with the acquisition of Compagnie de Provence, Rampal Latour's very first external growth operation, which opened a new chapter in this almost two-century-old family saga.
In brief: a family adventure that has continued for nearly 200 years, rooted in Salon-de-Provence, the historical capital of soap since 1873, driven today by the same ambition as at the beginning: to produce a simple, good, and true soap.
