Who Owns Villeroy & Boch?

Francois Boch began producing ceramic tableware in 1748 in Audun-le-Tiche, in what was then the Duchy of Lorraine. His sons expanded production to Mettlach on the Saar River in the early nineteenth century, building the factory that became the company's historic seat.

In 1836 Boch merged with rival Nicolas Villeroy, whose family ran faience works at Wallerfangen, creating Villeroy & Boch. The combined company became Europe's leading ceramics maker through the nineteenth century, supplying tableware to royalty and middle-class households and building iconic factory sites including the Mettlach abbey headquarters.

The company survived two world wars with its factories near the French-German border repeatedly contested. Postwar it rebuilt on tableware exports and expanded into bathroom ceramics, which grew into a co-equal division producing sanitary ware, baths, and wellness products.

Through the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries Villeroy & Boch diversified into lifestyle accessories, glassware, and tiles while keeping ceramics at the core. It developed design-led collections and collaborations to defend premium positioning against Asian mass manufacturers.

Through 2024 to 2026 the group generated over 1 billion euros in annual revenue, split between its two divisions, and continued investing in bathroom innovation and premium tableware while navigating weak European construction and consumer markets. The founding families' control kept strategy focused on long-term brand preservation over short-term volume.