When Bernard Tapie tumbles for the first time in Nancy, it is crowned with its ability to take over companies in difficulty with the stated ambition to turn them around. Preceded by the reputation of having become the CEO with forty successful restructurings, he met on November 15, 1983, at the request of the CFDT, the employees of Kuhn and Fléchel, a company in Jarville which manufactures weighing devices. The meeting takes place at the prefecture. Tapie guarantees the future of the staff for two years, and undertakes to pay off debts. But if the arrival of the businessman in the file takes place in a thunderous way, the closure of the company will occur in an infinitely more discreet way in January 1985.
The Kuhn et Fléchel company had known its heyday, employing up to 700 people. Between 1978 and 1983, it tripled its turnover to reach 35 million francs. In 1983, after five bosses in four years, the company fell into Tapie’s pockets after filing for bankruptcy. The 90 employees will very quickly become disillusioned, since in November 1984, the commercial court drew up a declaration of bankruptcy. The last order for 600 scales for Algeria, indicates the daily “Les Echos”, is transferred to a production unit of Testut in Béthune.
A walkabout in the pouring rain
And yet, ten years later, Tapie would return to Nancy. In the costume of the politician, head of the “Radical Energy” list for Europeans, while his first quarrels with Credit Lyonnais (which bankrupted him in March 1994), began to make headlines. This May 20, he took a walkabout in the pouring rain: “Tapie touches everyone, young and old,” says our colleague Frédéric Menu. “Similar to himself, without complex, mocking, but on the face, sometimes pierces a certain annoyance”. Tapie could not help but hear certain allusions, such as “It’s not Credit Lyonnais here”.
Back in Nancy as an actor … in the theater
“Nanard” will obviously not keep too bad memories of Nancy since he will return there for the third time as an actor… in the theater. He will play on December 9, 2000 at the Zénith in the play “Flight above a cuckoo’s nest”. The adaptation of the play made it possible to slip in tailor-made replicas, notes L’Est Républicain. Like: “The rules are never made for me, that’s why I can’t respect them”.
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