An encouraging signal for the 109 employees of the Poulain factory in Villebarou, near Blois (Loir-et-Cher), who have been threatened with a closure of the site since the beginning of June. Its owner, the Carambar & co group, announced in a press release on Tuesday 10 September that it had “found the basis for an agreement for the takeover by Andros of the entire site and its teams, with the maintenance of current production as well as new development prospects”.
This takeover project “will help secure employment and the production of Poulain chocolate in Villebarou”, said the president of Carambar & Co, Marc Auclair, quoted in the same press release.
The terms of the recovery to be confirmed
It remains to “wait for the Andros industrial project to be refined in the coming weeks and months”, said the Blois urban community, which received representatives of the candidate buyers on Tuesday. “Our communities were won over by Andros’ industrial ambition”, states the text, which specifies that the communities “will be attentive to the upcoming negotiations on the terms of this takeover”.
Part of the Carambar group since 2017, the factory had already seen part of its activity leave in 2023 with the departure of its chocolate powder activity abroad. The non-use of temporary workers had alerted employees and union representatives in the weeks preceding the announcement of the closure of this historic site, in operation for 170 years.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
