Our company

Nathan is part of Editis group

As part of the SEJER division, Nathan benefits from the robust support of Editis, a leader in the publishing industry with 2,600 employees and around 44 imprints. Editis excels in Literature, Education, and Reference, alongside publishing services.

For over 130 years

For over 130 years, Nathan has been at the forefront of education in France. Our renowned brand is built on the principle of making learning enjoyable. We offer a diverse range of products, including games, textbooks, teaching resources, children’s books, and nature guides, all designed to inspire curiosity and foster development.

A trusted brand

Our editors blend expertise to ensure that education and enjoyment go hand-in-hand. Nathan’s long-standing tradition of innovation continues to make us a trusted brand among teachers, educators, parents, and children.

Our Educational Materials Department currently lists over 1,000 items specially designed for
nurseries, kindergartens and pre-schools.
Our range covers:

Learning Games

Language

Mathematics

Science and World
Discovery

Pretend Play

Furniture and Activity
Equipment

Physical Activities

Special Needs

The early learning specialist

Nathan has been designing and producing high-quality educational games and resources since 1883, and today, it stands as a leading brand in the European education market. The first Nathan educational games catalogue was published in 1890!

We currently offer over 1,000 items specifically designed for nurseries, kindergartens, and schools. Nathan Educational Materials are preferred by many education specialists worldwide and are now exported to more than 50 countries. Our headquarters are located in Paris, and our 5,500 m² warehouse is situated 60 km north of Paris.

Our vision

At Nathan, our mission is to create resources and furniture that support every stage of a child’s development, from day-care to nursery school. We believe that early education in language, oral comprehension, reading, and counting lays the essential foundations for a child’s future success in school.

We are also committed to making learning accessible to everyone.

That’s why we work closely with special education professionals to develop resources tailored for children with special needs and disabilities. We prioritize thoughtful design in our products, ensuring that ergonomics, materials, and colours meet the highest standards for inclusivity and effectiveness.

The product development process

At Nathan, the release of a new product is a collaborative effort involving experts from various fields. Publishers, teachers, educators, psychologists, illustrators, designers, and manufacturers work together to meet your needs.

Our goal is to deliver high-quality, durable products designed for intensive communal use, helping children reach their full potential. This is the expertise Nathan brings to you.

Ethics and environment

Our approach

At Nathan, our commitment to CSR is nothing new. For many years now, our activity and our relations with our partners
(suppliers, customers, service providers, employees, public institutions, etc.) have incorporated social, environmental and economic prerogatives.

Today, we are pursuing and intensifying our commitment:

- With our official endorsement, in June 2012, of the United Nations Global Compact, the objective of which is to promote
10 universal principles concerning human rights, labour rights, environmental protection and anticorruption.

- With the implementation of a Corporate Social and Environmental Steering Committee responsible for its deployment in the company.

Our CSR commitment revolves around three principles:

Reducing the impact of
our activity on the environment.

Acting to ensure greater equality
and fulfillment in the workplace

Making our business reflect
our social commitment.

Preserving the environment

Offering sustainable, environmentally-friendly products

Nathan has always been committed to the idea that "socially-responsible" quality is by its very nature made to last:

- We are developing products using environmentally-friendly materials and new materials that are harder-wearing and lighter, so as to reduce the impact on the environment and to optimise the serviceable life of our products.

- We perform checks at key stages of the manufacturing process in order to guarantee optimal quality and finish.

- Our paper comes from environmentally managed forests and is elemental chlorine free (ECF). ECF bleaching has been recognised by The European Commission and US Environmental Protection Agency as the "best available technology".

- The woods used in the manufacturing process for our furniture mainly come from environmentally-managed forests and we are against the use of wood taken from illegal logging.

- Depending on the intended use of our materials, we concentrate on environmentally-friendly, water-based paints. These water-soluble paints are guaranteed solvent-free.

Promoting responsible purchasing policies

We favour reliable manufacturers and partners who provide excellent quality and are committed to the environment: reduced energy consumption, processing and re-use of waste (wood, paper, gloss paints, etc).

We carefully select our suppliers based on ethical criteria: respect for ILO (International Labour Organisation) conventions regarding forced child labour, respect for basic human rights and inspection of working conditions. Our ICTI (International Council of Toy Industries) certified toy suppliers are subject to inspection audits every year, according to very strict criteria.

Acting as a socially-responsible company

• Acting to respect human rights and rights of the child, especially the basic right to education

- Nathan is a partner of Unicef, working to raise awareness among young people of the rights of the child, international solidarity and citizenship.
- Nathan is developing special schemes to combat illiteracy and to help the insertion of young people and adults in difficult circumstances into the world of work.

• Education about sustainable development

Our role as publisher of education resources also creates the responsibility to act alongside children and teachers to raise awareness of "living together" and respect for the environment.

Quality, security, service

Nathan Quality Label

In addition to their educational value, all our products are developed with the greatest attention to the quality of raw materials, the manufacturing process and safety requirements to ensure that they are suitable for intensive use by children for many years. In collaboration with manufacturers and distributors around the world, we are able to offer materials that meet the demanding, high-quality criteria required by teachers.

Compliance with safety standards

Nathan attaches enormous importance to ensuring that its products are compliant with safety standards. They are a determining factor from the initial development phases and are complied with throughout the product manufacturing and supply process. In addition to full and complete compliance with current standards, the products that we manufacture comply with quality criteria specific to the Nathan brand which are often more stringent than regulatory standards.

All our products covered by European standards bear the CE mark.

The CE mark is mandatory for all products subject to one or more European Directives dealing with safety, public health, and consumer protection. It appears on the product itself, on the packaging, or the supplied documentation. CE compliance certificates for our products are available upon request.

European Directive 2009/48/EC on safety toy: this new directive entered into force twice on 20 July 2011 for standards EN 71-1 and EN 71-2 (Mechanical and Flammability) and on 20 July 2013 for standard EN 71-3 (Chemicals). All our products classed as toys shall henceforth fully meet the obligations set out in this directive. European Standard EN 71 on the safety of toys: tests on physical properties (stability, shock resistance, fall resistance and traction resistance under the least favourable conditions of use), flammability tests, chemical tests etc.

European standard EN 1021-1 and 2: fabric flammability on upholstered furniture.

European standard EN 16121: on non-domestic storage furniture.

French standard NF S 54-300 on Educational Material for Motor Skills: checking solidity, stability, and the absence of trapping hazards for children aged between 0 and 12.

• Our products comply with European regulations regarding health.
• Our products comply with the REACH ruling that imposes manufacturing, trade and usage restrictions applicable to certain substances with the aim of protecting human health and the environment.

REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) is an EU regulation aimed at improving awareness of the chemical substances used in industry in order to restrict their impact on health and the environment. This regulation entered into force on 1st June 2007, but the recording and authorisation procedures are being gradually introduced over ten years. We constantly analyse the raw materials listed in the REACH appendix in relevant products in order to guarantee that their levels of azo dyes, phthalates, cadmium and PCP are well within the statutory limits. Azo dyes make up a sizable amount of colourings and are widely used in fabric items. The pigments of azo dyes are chemically produced and can release certain aromatic amines that are deemed to be carcinogenic. Phthalates are regularly used in plastics (especially PVC) to make them flexible. Their use in toys has been drastically reduced in Europe due to their toxicity and the potential environmental impact.

• Moving forward with our health and the environment initiatives, we analyse the formaldehyde levels in our wood-based materials in order to ensure that they are kept to a minimum (E1 classification of our materials). Formaldehyde is a volatile organic compound (VOC) which is harmful to human health. It is a solvent used in many synthetic materials, in particular glues and resins used in wooden panels. Since 2002, the E1 standard has guaranteed strict formaldehyde thresholds.