By Herve Pavageau
Published on 5 Apr 21 at 11:07
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” It is not a surprise. We could see that production volumes were falling, ”confesses an employee, on condition of anonymity.
At the factory Refreshment France from Chateau-Thébaud (Loire Atlantique), it is despondency and resignation for the staff.
During a CSE which took place on April 1 and 2 in Margès, in the Drôme, head office of the French division of the Dutch group, the announcement of the closure of industrial site fell.
Production will stop in the summer. 60 jobs will be deleted.
The ax falls when the biggest bottler in the world had bought thefactory of Château-Thébaud a year ago, with two other sites of the Britvit group.
For years, millions of cartons of fruit juice have left the Nantes vineyard plant, which has 4 production lines.
After the Pressade brand, the factory bottled fruit juices for private labels.
In two months, nothing will come out of the site. The Refresco group justifies this decision by “the decline of the very competitive market for non-alcoholic drinks in France”.
Sharp drop in volumes
Packaging in cardboard bricks represents 75% of the volumes of J&C SAS, a subsidiary of Refresco France, which employs 242 people, spread over three establishments; La Roche-sur-Foron in Haute-Savoie, Nissan-lez-Enserune in the Herault and Chateau-Thébaud.
All the sites developing this type of packaging are affected, particularly the Château-Thébaud site, which saw its volumes drop by 33% over the 2018-2020 period. The cardboard device within the group is almost 50% over-capacity in 2020.
In three years, the Château-Thébaud site has lost a third of its volumes. In 2020, it produced 39 million liters compared to 59 million liters in 2018.
To “safeguard the competitiveness of the sector of activity”, Refresco France presented the social partners with a reorganization project.
Search for buyers
This project involves the elimination of 79 positions in France, including 60 positions at Château-Thébaud. The Nantes vineyard plant is due to cease its activity.
“It will be the subject of an exchange process with staff representatives over the next two months,” indicates management.
The company has started a search for potential buyers for its Château-Thébaud site
In consultation with union representatives, the company “will offer each employee concerned the most appropriate measures to support them in their internal mobility, within the Refresco group, or externally”.
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