(AFP / THIERRY ZOCCOLAN)
The production of mineral water, stopped after a fire of criminal origin, was able to resume Friday at midday on the Volvic site (Danone group) in Puy-de-Dôme, indicated the Société des waters of Volvic.
“Thanks to the exceptional mobilization of employees of the Volvic Water Company to rehabilitate the installations, production is being started,” a company spokesperson told AFP on Friday mid- daytime.
An arson fire hit a technical room during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, leading to the shutdown of all production.
This technical room which contained compressors had been deemed “fairly strategic” by the factory director Emmanuel Gerardin, because it supplied the factory’s installations.
The damage is “difficult to quantify” and represents “a few million bottles over a day”, he added, condemning a “serious and intolerable” act.
Some 300 employees had been placed on technical unemployment.
A complaint was filed and an investigation was opened, carried out by the gendarmerie research section, to try to clarify how the events unfolded. An inscription was found on a wall, saying: “Water extractivism? No, but water what”, since erased by the company.
Locally, the bottler is the subject of challenges from environmental associations and the owner of a fish farm who is taking the fight to court. On Thursday, they condemned this act, like local elected officials.
The Volvic factory employs around 800 people, plus 200 temporary jobs.