The Buguet Workshops, craft and business village

The legacy of the Montligeon printing works

In 1888, Fr. Buguet, anxious to provide work to his parishioners, initiated a small printing activity in his presbytery. Much later on, a brand-new dedicated building will get erected. Yet, the first hand-press that he bought enabled him to print the newsletters of his most recently founded Association for the Deliverance of the Souls in Purgatory and, thus, to spread its message further afar.

Fr. Buguet was thus giving concrete expression to his original intuition:

“I sought to reconcile a two-fold goal: to have people pray for neglected souls and, in return, to obtain from them the means of providing a livelihood for the worker. […] It was about mutual release. “

The printing press at Montligeon, along with the spiritual oeuvre, experienced unexpected expansion. As early as 1894, it already employed 31 workers – reaching up to 200 in 1988 – and covered over 10,000 m², only a few steps away from the basilica.

From the printing manufacture to the Buguet Workshops

In 2009, the removal of the production to a nearby site only a few miles from La Chapelle-Montligeon left a huge industrial wasteland, and a significant a void in the Montligeon Oeuvre.

In 2011, the chance encounter with a local entrepreneur seeking to give a meaning to his professional activities, helped outline a future project that will bring life back in the former printing structures. Thus, in June 2012, the Buguet Workshops actually materialized when the first firm moved in.

The Buguet Workshops,
craft and business village

Buguet Workshops bring craftsmen and entrepreneurs together in a spirit of mutual solidarity. Promoting the pooling of each entrepreneur’s skills, ideas and equipment, this collective of craftsmen aims to contribute to the development and sustainability of employment by making the most of the Church social doctrine. It is embodied in active solidarity between artisans where everyone feels connected to one another by means of services rendered – or to be rendered -, and which cannot be evaluated in figures. Money should not be the absolute regulator of trade, for social life would be at risk of losing its wholesomeness and fertility.

The Buguet Workshops endeavour at promoting the necessary central place of workers in business and thus, hinder the logic of making profit at any price. For this reason, the Buguet entrepreneurs are encouraged to create jobs, to form trainees and apprentices, and to receive people on professional reconversion or the unemployed seeking work ….

The Golden Rule

The previously explained dynamics operate as a golden rule and guidelines. They aim at providing a framework that, far from confining them, should allow each entrepreneur to strive ever more towards greater coherence and better fulfillment by means of making tangible steps. The Golden Rule agreement is signed on the day of the enterprise is formally set up on the premises.

A double-edged success

The Buguet Workshops represent a captivating concept; hence the waiting list to set up a business on its premises gets longer and longer, however, key makeovers need to be undertaken for the structure to host new members.

Hence, the entrepreneurs of Buguet Workshops receive and welcome visitors on Saturdays, interested people from the general public, schools or the Chamber of Commerce, or mere inquisitive individuals.

The annual Open Door Days meet with a real success, and the initial symposium organized by Ateliers Buguet brought together about thirty people. In 2023 “le Festival de l’Ascension à Montligeon” was a great opportunity to meet the artisans and take part in a fabulous treasure hunt.

In 2014 during the Regional Innovation Competition, the Buguet Workshops got nominated and won the first prize in the “Innovation and Society” category.