This is the end of the Caddy. A supermarket trolley maker will be liquidated, according to a CSE lawyer. The court of Saverne (Bas-Rhin) made a decision this Tuesday, according to the lawyer two buyout offers from the company, presented at the end of June. The Chamber of Commerce rejected both.
“We have a meeting this afternoon and there will be no buyers. We are heading for a hard liquidation,” Me Pierre Dulmet, the lawyer of the company’s Social and Economic Committee, is due to give his official decision at the end of the hearing at the chamber of commerce at 2:00 p.m.
Faced with bloodless cash flow, Caddy, which currently has 110 employees in Dettwiller (Bas-Rhin), was forced into liquidation on June 25 with continued operations. This procedure enabled the activation of the Wage Security Insurance Mechanism (WSI) so that workers could receive their salaries.
At best, 42 workers were hired
Two acquisition offers were quickly made. One of these is from the current owner, the Cochez group, based in Valenciennes (North) and specializing in transport and industrial services. After announcing its intention to retain around forty employees, Cochez ultimately plans to keep only 15 employees, “relinquishing industrial activity and focusing on commercial activity and the repair of carts,” said AFP court administrator Christophe Gillme.
“The prosecutor did not accept Mr. Cochez’s offer, he did not have the right to present his offer,” Mr. Dulmet continued Tuesday morning at the end of the less than year-long hearing.
The other was given by former Caddy owner Stephane Dedieu’s company Skade Management. It will take 42 employees” maintain industrial activity and develop trade activities,” according to the same source. The company would be backed by Italy’s Bertoldi and China’s Arcnode, a minority shareholder. Stéphane Dedieu already took over Alsace in 2014, before selling it to Cochez in 2022, which benefited from state aid.
However, “Mr. Dedieu had not submitted the terms of the suspension, so he did not submit his proposal. His lawyer came and said: I am not submitting my proposal. So the court has no takeover bid to learn,” explained Caddy’s CSE’s counsel.
Registered in 1959 and inspired by golf, the Caddy enjoyed increasing success until it became synonymous with the supermarket trolley. Its industrial and Alsatian origins date back to 1928 with wire products, and the company enjoyed its heyday with the rise of consumer society before facing difficulties. That’s how Caddy lived Four judicial recovery proceedings since 2012.