The 161 employees are still in shock, as are the rest of the inhabitants of the commune of Loire-Atlantique. Tuesday, they learned that the Candia de Campbon dairy, installed here since 1930, was going to close its doors in 2022 or 2023. “Its shutdown represents a threat to the economic balance of the sector, estimates Yannick Vaugrenard, senator (PS) of Loire-Atlantique in a letter sent this Friday to Prime Minister Jean Castex. It is imperative to accompany this cessation of activity. Several local elected officials also called on the Minister of the Economy Bruno Lemaire “to consider a future for this industrial site”.
Earlier this week, the French milk heavyweight Sodiaal (Candia, Yoplait) announced that it was considering closing this plant and another site, located in Saône-et-Loire. This would result in the elimination of 316 positions, to cope with the losses recorded on the markets for liquid milk and ingredients for infant milk, the group explained. Sodiaal “undertakes to offer each of the employees concerned at least one job internally in the group, and if necessary to support them in an external search”, he added.
“Dramatic consequences for employees”
For Yannick Vaugrenard, the group must be “compelled to maintain its production apparatus as long as any takeover proposals have not been assessed”. In a press release, the CFDT Agri-Agro “conceives that there are difficulties in certain companies of the Sodiaal group”, but “deplores that the general management chooses to close industrial tools with dramatic consequences for the employees who, for some will lose their jobs. The union adds that “its elected officials will fight so that the employees affected […] can leave with allowances and retraining courses worthy of a group like Sodiaal”.