1859-2009 : the Crabos Company has been firmly anchored in the heart of Saint-Sever-sur-Adour. The reason for this loyalty? The Landes and the Pyrénées regions, both close by, are known historically as the center of French goose and duck breeding, a natural activity which has been in force for the last 200 years throughout the region.

The family saga starts with their great grandfather, Abel Crabos, who begins collecting feathers in marketplaces and on farms in 1859. His son, René, captain of the French rugby team from 1920 to
1925, enters the family company in his turn. With the purchase of a sorter, René Crabos becomes a specialist in the raw material and takes advantage to open out into new markets: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Scandinavia. Above all, he forges the values of commitment, trust and solidarity that quickly become the trademarks of the company.

1960 : René’s son, André, creates the first workshops to produce bedding (eiderdowns, comforters and pillows) as well as some items of down clothing.

1967 : Jean-Pierre Crabos, a public works engineer, arrives to assist his brother, André.

1968 : the Crabos family buys a company that is specialized in the production of finished down products (comforters, sleeping bags and pillows). The official name of the company becomes Pyrenex, named after the countryside nestled up against the buttresses of the Pyrenées.

1970 : André inaugurates the factory in Saint-Sever- sur-Adour. Jean-Pierre Crabos, General Director, industrializes the company whose surface grows to more than 215,000 square feet. (20,000 square meters). He also creates the first mountain jacket and his anoraks are worn for great expeditions. The treatment and selection of feathers and down as of its reception remains a fundamental activity, but starting in 1970, bedding becomes a second motor.

1990 : Pyrenex brings new momentum to the production of down jackets, while fiercely preserving their work with feathers, a savoir-faire which has become rare in France. One of its kind in Europe, Pyrenex reunites several different trades: the collection and preservation of feathers, sorting and calibration, treatment, and the fabrication of down bedding and clothing. Their experience in this domain earns them the reputation for being the European company that is the most subjected to strict international environmental and quality controls. New markets are conquered: Korea, Taiwan, China and the USA.

2002 : The fifth generation carries on the f lame in the person of Edouard Crabos, son of Jean-Pierre and nephew of André Crabos. In 2004, at the age of 32, in his turn he takes over the direction of the family business.

Figures :
Sales turnover: 24 million euros
40% in the supply of feathers,
40% in bedding, 20% in down jacket.