Firsts for monbento®

Any first is always special, especially when you’re starting out on a great adventure!

Emilie and Fabien, the founders of monbento®, tell us about their times of excitement, surprise, and joy. All that has led to the company’s success as monbento® celebrates its fifth birthday!

Emilie and Fabien, co-founders of monbento

First thrill linked to monbento®: We’d say receiving our very first package of products. It was in April 2009 and it arrived directly from Japan! What a memory…

First offices: Our apartment! The living room was our office, and our bedroom was our warehouse. It was a bit cramped, but we can laugh about it today.

First monbento offices

First employee: Our super-logistician Florent: always on the job!

First product created: The MB Original of course! Its shape was quite similar to what it is today, but it wasn’t yet covered with Soft Touch and the intermediate lids weren’t hermetic or microwavable.

First product imagined by monbento

First order: Mathieu, a customer on our website. Since then, to thank him, we send him every new product for free as soon as it comes out. He got a really good deal that day! 😉

First foreign order: In 2011 from the United Kingdom, from a lady named Sharon.

First “major account”: Galeries Lafayette. Imagine how excited we were to see our products in the window!

Display Galleries Lafayette

First trip abroad for monbento®: In Asia, in late 2009, for a very special occasion: to check the first production run of the MB Original…

First trade show: In 2010: the Maison&Objet show in Paris. A huge event! And to think that we now participate in about six shows a year, worldwide…

Maison&Objet show

First monbento® surprise: When a famous person placed an order on our site… But don’t expect us to tell you who it was! 😉

First award: The Red Dot Design Award for the MB Original in 2012, followed a few months later by the GIA. This was great recognition but also encouragement for the future, to persevere!

First meeting with chef Fréderic Coursol: It was even before we created monbento®! At the time Fabien was the director of a design company and was already attracted by the world of gastronomy. He launched a new catering concept and Frédéric emceed the presentation.

First blog article: A wrap recipe created by Arnaud, our third acolyte and co-founder of monbento®. Now of course, the members of our community, and the chef of course, share their best recipes with us via Clubento and our YouTube channel.

First Facebook account: At the time (back in the Stone Age!), fanpages didn’t exist, so the company had a group: the monbento.com group.

First interview: An interview on company creation on France Bleu Auvergne, a local radio station.

First TV appearance: Our products were presented on the programme 100% Mag on M6 on an episode dedicated to lunchboxes. Since then, we never get tired of seeing them on TV!