With a “dry cash”, the manufacturer of caddy trolleys is in suspension of payments


The Alsatian manufacturer of supermarket trolleys will be placed in receivership for the third time in ten years. A hearing setting the conditions is scheduled for Tuesday morning before the commercial chamber of the judicial court of Saverne (Bas-Rhin).

“New start” or sad end? The famous manufacturer of supermarket trolleys Caddie, based in Dettwiller in Alsace, declared himself in default on Monday in the face of an accumulation of difficulties which have exhausted its cash flow. “We filed this morning a declaration of suspension of payments at the court of Saverne (Bas-Rhin). […] Our cash flow is dry ”, says company boss Stéphane Dedieu, confirming information from Latest News from Alsace. All employees learned the news of the receivership during an extraordinary works council on December 31.

“It is a conjunction of misfortunes that led us to run out of cash”, explains Stéphane Dedieu, who took over the presidency of the company following a previous receivership in 2014. Which succeeded a similar procedure in 2012. “We have suffered a lot of setbacks since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic with a significant drop in turnover, mainly because we work a lot with clients abroad”, details the president of the company officially named Les Ateliers Reunis Caddie, which still has 140 employees.

“Supply difficulties then a cluster”

To justify the difficult situation of the company, Stéphane Dedieu also invokes “Supply difficulties which delayed [les] productions, then a cluster ” among employees. Not to mention the rising cost of raw materials, such as steel, which has not helped. The boss still hopes that this new receivership will mark “a new start” for this “Beautiful brand”.

On the union side, the CFTC secretary of the Social and Economic Committee (CSE), Luc Strohmenger, castigates “risky management “ funds guaranteed by the state in the context of the pandemic. Employees are “In the dejection, it’s a huge waste”, he squeaks, he who will therefore experience his third receivership with the company. “We knew that the company was in difficulty, but not to this point, and we could not imagine reliving a suspension of payments so quickly and so brutally”, adds the union representative to France 3.

In the summer of 2020, Caddie, 70% owned since 2018 by the Polish Damix, had already cut fifty jobs and regrouped all its production activities of trolleys for mass distribution on the only site of Dettwiller (Bas-Rhin) resulting in the closure of that of Drusenheim. In 2014, after a previous recovery and a social plan which resulted in the elimination of 250 jobs Caddy had succeeded in raising the bar. In three years, the number of employees had increased from 110 to 270. This does not prevent the firm, founded in 1928, from finding itself today in an extremely complicated financial situation. Tuesday morning, the 140 employees will know more about their fate. A hearing which must determine the conditions of its receivership is fixed before the commercial chamber of the judicial court of Saverne.



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