It’s hot this Sunday, April 24. So hot that the voters of La Gacilly (Morbihan) seek shade on the forecourt of the town hall to comment on this second round of the presidential election. In front of the town hall of this town of almost 4,000 inhabitants nestled between Rennes and Vannes, everyone pours out about the methods of candidate president Emmanuel Macron, the breakthrough of the National Rally, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the impact of the war on the activity of Yves Rocher… This last point particularly bothers the Gacilians.
The local ecosystem depends on the dynamism of the cosmetics juggernaut (2.5 billion annual turnover, 18,000 employees in 115 countries, ten brands including Yves Rocher, Petit Bateau, Daniel Jouvance, etc.). It was in La Gacilly that Yves Rocher founded, in 1959, this empire that his descendants still hold 98.8% and make it prosper. More than 3,000 people work in the surrounding factories. This Sunday, the statement of the name of the company tenses the exchanges. Embarrassed laughter. The subject is “taboo” in the actual context. A few days earlier, Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny supported Emmanuel Macron on Twitter, after recalling that his detention was caused by a complaint from a French company.
Here, everyone knows that Alexeï Navalny is targeting Yves Rocher, because it was following the complaint for suspicion of fraud that the Russian subsidiary of the cosmetics company filed, in 2012, against the transport company whose Mr. Navalny was a shareholder that the Russian authorities sentenced him to three and a half years in prison, suspended. It is on the basis of this judgment, following a failure to respect his judicial control, that the opponent was imprisoned from 2021. The silences are even heavier when one questions the strategy of mark since the start of the conflict in Ukraine on February 24.
While some French groups like LVMH, Kering or Renault have left Russia, Yves Rocher, like others, still trades there. Suddenly, a man bursts in from the town hall. This forties was ” warned “ the possible presence of journalists from the World focusing on the municipality’s main employer and its impact on the territory. Municipal councilor in charge of communication, Youenn Combot gets annoyed, then asks to check the press cards. “To talk about Yves Rocher, contact the company. Not the town hall, he indicates. The two, however, maintain a close bond.
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