Maurice Luiset

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Maurice Luiset (also spelled Luizet) 1871 – 1935 was a French financier and entrepreneur who created several mainstream consumer-good products such as MIR, the world's oldest existing, and continental Europe's first detergent, the perfume Porte-Bonheur and a hygiene and beauty product La Mondiale. Maurice Luiset also owned one of the largest candle manufacturing businesses in France, a bee-keeping products business that sold under the brand name La Colombe and merchant ships that he used for import and export activities. He based his business operations out of Vienne, near Lyon, France.

[edit] Overview

Maurice Luiset lost his father at an early age, but managed to stay in the Jesuit school thanks to strong grades that earned him support from the Jesuits who saw in him a future scholar. During after-school hours however, he began selling shoe-laces, which earned him and his family a meek but sufficient living. Maurice Luiset's experience as an entrepreneur thus began at an early age and it enabled him to make the choice to dedicate himself to business rather than to scholarly studies. At the age of thirteen he went to work for a French candle manufacturer, and in a few years became the owner's partner. Following a disagreement between Mr. Luiset and the owner (Mr. Luiset had refused to marry the owner's daughter) he left and founded a candle business, Ets. Luiset in Ste. Colombe les Viennes, thanks to his wife's dowry. He successfully ran his business to generate enough cash to branch out into a myriad of activities including consumer goods, industrial products related to bee-keeping, import and export shipping and financing activities of various types including stock market and sovereign debt speculation.

Shortly before the Russian revolution of 1917, Maurice Luiset invested a significant amount of his wealth in Czar Nicholas II's regime bonds, which had lost the majority of their value, speculating that the Revolution would fail; as the future communist nation fell into the hands of the Bolshevicks so too did his investments. Subsequently, facing liquidity problems Mr. Luiset lost the majority of his wealth. Over the following twenty years, he would focus his efforts on innovations in the detergent, perfume and other chemical products and on the study of bee-keeping and the effect of bee pollination on tree varieties.

Maurice Luiset is best known for having created the first non-bleach detergent, MIR, an innovation that gave rebirth to the wanning textile industry of the Lyon area as it improved operating efficiencies in the washing of silks and fine textiles. The detergent (which was sold to Cotelle & Fouchet in 1923 and is currently a portfolio product of Henkel Group) remains one of the most a popular detergents in France and is one of the most recognizable brand names in France, with 99% recognition rate amongst the French adult population.

Maurice Luiset died of pancreatic cancer in 1935, at the age of 64.