Un French flagship is in danger. The famous manufacturer of supermarket trolleys Caddie, who declared himself in default on Monday, January 3, was placed in receivership on Tuesday with a month and a half to find a buyer and save its 140 jobs in Alsace. “The court puts the company in receivership (…) and it returns the case to February 22, hoping to have a solution by this date with a buyer for the company Caddie”, indicated the president of the company, Stéphane Dedieu, at the end of the closed hearing held before the commercial chamber of the judicial court of Saverne (Bas-Rhin).
“We’re pressed for time because the company needs cash to keep going, so it’s important that the process be fast,” added the man who, who joined Caddy in the early 1990s as a salesperson, took over the business. company in 2014 after a previous receivership. “Currently, I have no lead, but the procedure is just starting”, recognized Stéphane Dedieu, calling for an “industrial” buyer for this niche market and praising “a beautiful brand, beautiful products and employees involved ”.
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“The state of society is really catastrophic”
For his part, reassured that the wages for December will finally be paid, Luc Strohmenger, CFTC secretary of the Social and Economic Committee (CSE), wants priority to be given to “maintaining employment” on the now only production site in Dettwiller (Bas-Rhin). “The objective is to find a buyer as quickly as possible because the state of the company is really catastrophic. The objective is to maintain employment as long as possible ”, insisted the lawyer of the CSE, Mr.e Hervé Bertrand, evoking 7 million euros in debt just from suppliers.
“For me, it is obvious that a beautiful house like Caddy will inevitably attract an industrialist,” Stéphane Dedieu said on RMC before the court hearing. The Alsace-based company declared itself insolvent on Monday due to an accumulation of difficulties which have exhausted its cash flow. The company, called Les Ateliers Réunis Caddie, which invented the metal trolley for supermarkets in 1928, has already undergone two legal reorganizations, in 2012 and 2014. It has been 70% owned since 2018 by the Polish Damix, who cut 50 jobs in 2020.