Habib Chabbouh is the manager of La Maison de l’Artisan (MDA), a ceramics manufacturer in Nabeul that specializes in tableware. In addition to running the company, Mr. Chabbouh serves as the president of Nabeul Tableware Cluster Hub, a UN-implemented organization that helps over 30 small artisans in the region strengthen their capacities.
Mr. Chabbouh’s career in ceramics spans nearly three decades. After graduating from the Faculty of Sciences of Tunis (FST) in 1994, Mr. Chabbouh earned a postgraduate diploma in crystallography, a science that studies the arrangement of crystalline objects such as ceramics. During his time at university, his professor encouraged him to pursue a career in ceramics.
Mr. Chabbouh started off in the field with an internship at porcelain tableware manufacturer Tunisie Porcelaine. He then took a second internship with ceramics manufacturer Doremail. At Doremail, he showed strong promise and was recruited as the company’s chief of production.
A year later, Mr. Chabbouh moved to EMACER, a Tunisian-Italian company that produces glass frits for printed glass objects, glazes, raw materials, and colorants, including for ceramic and tile manufacturers. As lab director, Mr. Chabbouh interacted with many artisans in Nabeul, Tunisia’s ceramic capital, and saw their need for high quality raw material, such as enamels (similar to ceramic glazes) and colorants.
Mr. Chabbouh began to specialize in producing this material for local artisans. He grew popular in the community because his material was both less expensive and higher quality than imported material. On top of that, Mr. Chabbouh offered artisans technical trainings to work more effectively with the enamels and colorants he sold, thus improving the quality of their final products.
In 2002, Mr. Chabbouh made another jump – he went from selling raw material to producing innovative ceramics himself. He started with a small workshop with five ceramic employees, which quickly grew to 12 employees. Leveraging his experience and skills in the industry, Mr. Chabbouh created premium-quality ceramics with designs and unique color schemes, which sold well on the local market. In 2006, he officially opened Maison de l'Artisan, focusing solely on ceramic production. The products drew strong interest at international trade shows – and by 2012, he was exporting to Libya, Algeria, Italy, and the Netherlands. The company’s artisan producers helped the company achieve this growth, actively promoting its products every step of the way.
While Mr. Chabbouh adapted well to market trends and gained strong international appeal, he sought support to establish a formal marketing strategy and control production costs. In addition, he needed to bring on staff with experience in mold-making to reduce his dependence on subcontractors.
To help Masion de l’Artisan reach these goals, USAID Tunisia JOBS is working with the company to improve its production layout and train staff in mold-making, design, and high-temperature ceramic firing, which is a new, more efficient production technique. In addition, JOBS is helping the company develop a reliable cost-calculation method to inform its inventory planning and product development.
With this support, Maison de l’Artisan expects to significantly increase sales and create 15 jobs and four internships by the end of 2024.
“The future of our industry is high-temperature manufacturing. We need to master this innovative method and invest in new equipment to further grow, create more jobs, and continue to compete with other innovative producers around the world. Our goal is for Tunisia to remain among the world's best ceramic suppliers.”
Habib Chabbouh
Founder – Maison de l’Artisan
