page_title: Mesbla
section_title: The beginning
hierarchical_section_title: Mesbla / History / The beginning
context_page_description: Mesbla S.A. was a chain of Brazilian department stores that began operations in 1912 as a subsidiary of a French firm, and had its bankruptcy declared in 1999.
context_section_description: In the building number 83 of the Assembleia street, in the city center of Rio de Janeiro, was installed in 1912 a subsidiary of the firm Mestre & Blatgé, based in Paris and specialized in the trading of machinery and equipment.
  The Brazilian subsidiary had little importance within the French organization throughout the world. Four years after its installation, its administration was handed over to French Louis La Saigne, previously deputy manager of the branch in Buenos Aires. In 1924, La Saigne transformed the Rio establishment in an autonomous firm, with the name Sociedade Anônima Brasileira Estabelecimentos Mestre et Blatgé, which in 1939 changed its name to Mesbla S.A. The new name was a combination of the first syllables of the original name, which was suggested by the secretary of Louis La Saigne, Isaura, through an internal competition. The concern was that at the beginning of World War II France has expressed solidarity to Adolf Hitler, which could lead to reprisals in Brazil with reference to the name.
  La Saigne had four daughters, and the oldest married Henrique de Botton. After a day of hard work, Louis La Saigne, the founder of Mesbla, died at his residence on the night of January 18, 1961. With his death were elected president and vice president two of his older employees, respectively, Silvano Santos Cardoso and Henrique de Botton. In the following year, on August 12, 1962, Mesbla celebrated its Golden Jubilee already as a genuinely Brazilian company, with more than 8 000 employees operating in 13 branches, retail stores and sales agencies established in strategic parts of the country. After the death of Silvano Santos Cardoso on February 29, 1968, Henrique became president, and after Henrique's death, his son André also took office. Both led the expansion and the decline of the company until the 1980s. In the 1950s, the company had stores located in major cities in the country and in some countryside towns. In the 1980s Mesbla had 180 outlets and employed 28 000 people. Their large stores, with areas with rarely less than 3 000 square meters, were landmarks in the cities where Mesbla was present.
  For nearly three decades reigned virtually alone in the retail market, being the only company in the genre with nationwide coverage. Employees took pride in stating that Mesbla just did not sell coffins, which are for the dead; for the living they had all the goods, from buttons to cars, boats and airplanes.
caption: Mesbla Building
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS REBEL T1i", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2013:08:18 13:04:19", "Image ExifOffset": "160", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "786", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "19925", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/800", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Unknown", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:08:18 12:14:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:08:18 12:14:40", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "602741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "35/8", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "61/2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "105", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "47", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "47", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "792000/149", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "3168000/593", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "3340800808", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[28, 105, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM"}