Judicial liquidation for Transports Ducros d'Aimargues: 34 employees on the hook

L'équipe des salariés des Transports Ducros d'Aimargues. Midi Libre – E. L.

La société de transports, ex-Badaroux, ferme ses portes. Elle transportait les marchandises de nombreux domaines viticoles et caves coopératives.

The large warehouse is almost empty, there are only a few pallets left that customers will have to come and collect. Henri Ducros transport employees in Aimargues have set up a large table and are preparing a barbecue for lunch. The last meal all together because the judicial liquidation of Transports Ducros should be pronounced this Wednesday evening by the Bordeaux commercial court. The Aimargues agency has 34 employees, including 18 drivers. In France, 250 employees, spread across 12 agencies, are losing their jobs.

"The company was placed in receivership on February 1, but we had not lost hope because companies had come to withdraw a file from the commercial court,explains Alex Paris, agency director. "Two had even asked for additional time, we thought we would have a buyer, even partial. And ultimately nothing. It's very violent for the team who, despite everything, continued to do their job until the end, to deliver the last customers."

600 customers, including 60% from the wine world

Three years ago, the former Badaroux company was bought by Ducros, a 72-year-old company, then based in Villeneuve-les-Maguelone. Then Ducros became the property of Dimotrans, a group headquartered in Lyon. "Until 2010, Badaroux was in Saint-Césaire then we invested in this site of& #39;Aimargues, ideally located", explains Alain, hired as a driver in Saint-Césaire when he was 20 years old… In 2017, the Aimarguois site was hit by a fire which destroyed everything. "We went through some difficult things, but we then continued to work, in prefabs while waiting for the building to be rebuilt. To end up like that, liquidated in a month, it's ugly, even if we saw it coming…" adds Romuald. 

The Aimargues agency handled the merchandise of 600 customers, 60% of whom came from the wine world. His trucks mostly circulated in France, but sometimes with a few European trips."The world of transport, palletized messaging like us, has been in crisis for around two years, this is due in particular to a drop in consumption: fewer volumes to transport, lighter shipments, increasing costs and falling revenues. We are at the end of the chain, downstream, but what cannot be consumed cannot be transported…" analyzes the agency director.& nbsp;

"No official mail"

As for the office staff, anger is present. Suzanne has been employed for 18 years "I have never made a CV in my life, this company, my colleagues, it's very important". "There are going to be tears this evening when we say goodbye", adds Sandrine. While Soleya, 12 years old, feels angry. "We have been warning for a while that things weren't going well, we haven't been heard. Getting rid of a subsidiary is easy. In the meantime, we have not received any mail, nor have we had any exchanges with the group to which we belong."

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