"A tsunami": how the Queen of Jordan transformed this French leather goods company
March 2025. Jordanian Queen Rania al-Yassin attends an event, unaware that she will change the fortunes of a French leather goods company. Rania al-Yassin is carrying a small leather handbag. The queen then posts several photos of herself on Instagram, revealing the bag.
On Instagram, the queen boasts 10 million followers. Beyond that, she's the queen of a country. In short, unexpected international exposure for Nodie's, the leatherworking company based in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme). Its head is Tine Collard, who returns to RMC this Wednesday to discuss this success story.
"All it took was one bag," she admits, interviewed by Apolline Matin . "We could call it a tsunami, given the production and sales that followed. Even in our wildest dreams, we wouldn't have imagined this," continues Tine Collard.
It all began with a post published by the company on the social network LinkedIn. The story discussed the difficulties for a young company to gain exposure in the mainstream media. A close friend of the queen then sent a message, explaining that he had been following the brand for some time. He suggested he might approach Rania al-Yassin with a view to sending her a piece of their creation.
"Of course, at first, it wasn't that we didn't believe in it... but it seemed very surprising. He came back to us and said: 'She really likes it, she's very sensitive to your designs. You can send her your models.'"
"Everything happened quickly from there," recalls Tine Collard. From then on, the entrepreneur had to "react urgently." "We had to recruit, train, and buy new machines." The media became interested in her story. The site was then translated into several languages.
By September, the company will have eight employees, up from three previously. "We were averaging 40 bags per month, now it's 30 per week," concludes Tine Collard, not without pride.
RMC
