In 1954, keen fisherman Marc Grégoire took his wife's advice and used the Teflon he had been applying onto his fishing gear to coat her kitchen pans. The results were brilliant: food residues that had meant arduous cleaning were now simply not there, or were easy to wipe away.
Two years later, Tefal was created to produce non-stick frying pans and it gradually expanded its range. Arguably it was the moment in 1961 that First Lady Jackie Kennedy was pictured holding a Tefal pan in a US magazine that brought the brand to worldwide attention. Since then it has introduced cordless irons, the Clipso pressure cooker and the best-selling Ingenio range of compact cookware with their clip-on handles.
Tefal is now the world's number one cookware brand and operates in 120 countries.