Soon the end of Caddy ? The Alsatian supermarket trolley company is on the brink of collapse

L'entreprise pourrait être placée en liquidation judiciaire. ILLUSTRATION MAXPPP – Jean-Marc Quinet

Short of cash, the famous Alsatian manufacturer of supermarket trolleys Caddy is on the brink of collapse, while its current owner, the Cochez group, has announced an offer which plans to keep "at minimum" 40 of the 110 employees.

"There is no more cash to pay salaries and the receiver has requested" this Tuesday, June 25 at the commercial chamber of the judicial court of Saverne (Bas-Rhin) of "convert the judicial recovery", pronounced on May 28, "in liquidation" with continued activity.

This is so that, legally, the salary guarantee insurance (AGS) "can take over", indicated to the & ;#39;result of the hearing Mr Pierre Dulmet to around thirty employees and trade unionists, gathered in front of the court gates.

Fourth judicial recovery

The court was initially due to take stock on July 2 on possible buyers of the company based in Dettwiller (Bas-Rhin), in recovery for the fourth time in around ten years. But faced with the emergency of a drained cash flow, the judicial administrator preferred to take the lead.

Interested buyers have until Wednesday June 26 at 6 p.m. to make themselves known, explained Mr. Dulmet. A new hearing before the Alsatian commercial court must be held on Thursday June 27 to determine whether offers have been submitted. If buyers come forward, a new hearing will be held on July 16. Otherwise, the company would be liquidated as of this Thursday. 

But the owner of Caddy, the Cochez group, presented "a letter of intent" and will submit "an offer before tomorrow evening", Jonathan Bertrand, the director, indicated to employees operational Caddy.

Cochez, a group based in Valenciennes (North) and specialized in transport and industrial services, intends to propose a "completely different industrial project" which would maintain employment "at a minimum of 40 employees", Mr. Bertrand specified. Up to 70 employees could thus not be taken on.

"We do not yet have a written offer" and "we do not yet know" whether this offer from the current owner is "a good or a bad one", commented Mr. Dulmet. It must also be validated by the public prosecutor, he pointed out.

The Cochez group had already announced at the end of May a "new project" for Caddie, warning that it would not take over "a large part" of the 110 employees. A potential offer from Stéphane Dedieu, former owner of Caddie and still a shareholder in the company, is also being discussed, but nothing specific has leaked, according to Pierre Dulmet. "Caddie's still not dead!", the lawyer wants to believe.

"It's not social destruction, it's suicide!"

But on the employees' side, Cochez's offer was received with skepticism: "It's not social damage, it's suicide!", said one of them when the project was announced.  "No one trusts him", said another.

In the company "since 1999", Stéphane, 43 years old, has experienced four turnarounds. "We had up to 1,200 employees" and "until'in 2012", the year of the takeover by the Altia group, which filed for bankruptcy two years later, &amp ;quot;it'was very good", he remembers. "We stocked up, we had everything: a 13th month, attendance bonuses…"

But then, the adjustments came one after the other and "I haven't evolved one bit. Life increases, I have the impression of regressing. We suffer", confides, fatalistic, the forty-year-old who prefers not to give his last name.

Already on the verge of liquidation, Caddy was taken over in 2022 with the help of public funds by Cochez. In May 2023, the company announced that it would stop producing plastic supermarket trolleys, citing environmental concerns.

Today, the public authorities are absent, notes Pierre Herbeault, South delegate. As for the legislative candidates, "no" has so far been interested in the file, notes this forklift operator , with the company since 2015. "They could if they wanted to. But I think they're just not interested…"

Name registered in 1959 and inspired by golf, Caddy, whose industrial and Alsatian origins date back to 1928 with wire products, experienced its hour of glory with the rise of consumer society, inseparable from the metal trolley for supermarkets, before encountering difficulties.