the essential
This Monday, September 30, the last 100% French accordion should be delivered. The Maugein factory, the last to produce them, was placed in liquidation by the Brive court.
Founded in 1919, the Maugein factory did not enjoy its 100 years of existence for long. This Friday, September 27, the Brive judicial court recorded the judicial liquidation of the factory. It will close its doors unless a buyer comes forward. This emblem of the cultural and industrial heritage of Tulle (Corrèze) should deliver its last accordion this Monday, September 30. He was given a deadline of one week to allow the finalization of the latest productions as requested by the boss, Richard Brandao.
To France Bleu, he reacted: “we have to know how to stop at the right time. We are not going to keep people busy doing nothing. There are no more accordions to make, we no longer make accordions.” He analyzes this failure in the columns of the local daily La Montagne: “Our only hope was to succeed in integrating the Chinese market, where growth and interest in the accordion are the strongest, but we did not succeed. “. Before concluding, “The accordion in France is finished.”
Impacted by the Covid crisis
The company began to experience financial difficulties during the Covid crisis. Then it went from bad to worse with a cessation of payments. The order book has continued to shrink, in particular due to China’s outrageous domination of the accordion market.
The judicial liquidator will study the recovery possibilities, the quality and number of which are currently unknown. He is also expected to fire the company’s ten remaining employees. However, there is hope according to the constituency’s deputy, former president François Hollande: “We must do everything with the communities so that this buyer can leave in good conditions and promote the Maugein brand.”
For Stéphane, 39 years old, at Maugein there was disappointment of course, but no surprise. “The world of the accordion is becoming very complicated. Unfortunately, there were others before us,” he concluded with our colleagues at France Bleu.
