With “Le 29”, business dealings reach new heights

An exceptional setting for business meetings… A new business club, backed by local big business leaders, including Marfret managing director Guillaume Vidil, has just opened its doors in Marseille. The 29 Business Club has taken up its quarters at a prestigious location –the 29th floor of the La Marseillaise Tower.

Voted the world’s second most beautiful tower, the Jean Nouvel-designed building offers stunning panoramic views of the port of Marseille and the Mediterranean Sea.

The private club, which already has 300 members, will be opening its own restaurant (if the health situation allows) with Jean-David Cohen at the helm. With a reputation for enchanting Marseillais’ taste buds at his prestigious Dalloyau restaurant at the Terrasses du Port, and at his new restaurant 1860, Le Palais, Cohen is setting the tone with upcoming guest appearances by Michelin-starred chefs! Open throughout the day, the 29 is a favourite spot for business leaders for their business breakfasts, lunches and dinners. An ideal co-working space, the 29 offers its members a choice of meeting rooms of all sizes, whether for a B2B or full board meeting.

Cultural immersion with “Passengers” and “Paysages Productifs” (Productive Landcapes)

With the ongoing pandemic, Marfret has continued more than ever its promotion of culture and its support for artists. The company recently paid for a container to be modified and put at the disposal of artist Guillaume Marmin, who has completely restyled the interior. His work, entitled “Passengers”, takes visitors on a journey of discovery of the different facets of their image, reflected in kaleidoscopic mirrors. The images reflected are intensified by the lighting. This, to say the least, unique installation has already been exhibited in the Rhône-Alpes Region at the Hôpital Nord-Ouest at Villefranche and has been at the Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence since 14th January. The work has been awarded the Vasarely Foundation – Biennale Chroniques International Award for “contemporary kinetic art création récompensée par la remise du prix international de la Fondation Vasarely – Biennale Chroniques « Pour l’art cinétique aujourd’hui ».

Another exhibition well worth seeing is Nicolas Floc’h’s “Paysages Productifs”, which has been extended until the end of April 2012 at the FRAC Provence-Alpes Côte d’Azur. Through his underwater photographs in black and white, the artist draws us into the submerged realm of landscapes, with an original take on the deep which borders on the abstract.

FFA: Timber is going green

Last December FFA, a subsidiary of Marfret, a specialist in the design of intermodal solutions on the Seine axis, organized the combined transport of timber frames between Normandy and the Paris region.

This shipment was carried out as part of an experiment initiated by the Normandy timber industry. Leaving the workshops of the company Cuiller Frères, a specialist in timber construction since 1971, the frames were loaded onto the Marfret Brevon from the quays of Somap, Marfret’s handling subsidiary. This was a first for Cuiller Frères, which had always transported their frames from their Normandy workshops to building sites in the Paris region on an ‘all road’ basis. River transport has a clear competitive and ecological advantage: “We were able to place eight “bundles” of frames on the barge instead of only two in a truck” explains Amélie Cuiller. The Marfret Brevon first stopped at Conflans Ste Honorine to unload the equivalent of six wooden houses. The four other “bundles” were dropped off at Bruyères s/ Oise.

Marfret and its subsidiaries FFA and Somap are pleased to have participated in this experiment aimed at reducing the number of trucks in the Paris region.