Our history “The Flotherchoc years”

In  the 1960’s  a Frenchman based in Lyon called Michelle Deurie invented a lightweight buoyancy aid,  this was  at a  time when they were cumbersome plastic things filled with Kapok and  made by Holt and Quadrant.  Flotherchoc  jackets used small individual air cells as buoyancy, initially  they  were for canoeists, but dinghy sailors could see the benefit.

We started to import them in 1968 and  they sold  in their 1000’s.  Sadly Flotherchoc  France failed  in the 70’s, so we decided to manufacture them in the UK.

To advertise them initially we used a top swimwear photographer, but in the late 70’s we brought it in house, but always  used top London Models, some of whom went on to pursue  acting  careers(Vicki Michelle).

Close cell foam became more and more popular because  it was more durable particularly for the leisure hire part of the industry.

We stopped production in the  early 90’s