Azur Med, a manufacturer of surgical equipment installed since 2017 in Indre, was placed in liquidation this Wednesday. The company, established in Indre in 2017, was first based in Lacs, in La Châtre before moving to Neuvy-Saint-Sépulcre. The Savoyard manufacturer had planned to create 150 jobs during its installation. In reality, in seven years, they have only grown to 25 employees at most, and today there are only five left.
“A big waste”
The five employees will be able to benefit from economic dismissal and therefore from the professional security contract, which brings together a set of measures to help them find work, such as professional reconversions For example. Their boss offered them to be relocated to the sites of the parent company Elival in Haute-Savoie but they want to stay in the Indre department, they confided this Wednesday before the commercial court. The judicial liquidation of their company does not surprise them. “We knew this for a long time, because we didn't get much return on investment“, they explain. The only positive point they remember is having managed to receive their salaries for the month of Octoberstill having sent a registered letter to their boss in November. Jean-Louis Escoffier also insists: “I leave no social debt“He regrets.”a big mess“.
The CEO of the Elival group, parent company of Azur Med, assures “to have believed in it until the end“. Jean-Louis Escoffier had the ambition to diversify the group and launch, in Indre, into manufacturing of resealable cans. But, according to him, the company's forced move to Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre brought business to a halt. The site was not suitable according to him, unlike that of Lacs where it was initially installed, in premises loaned by Fenwal. He says he was forced to move. Not at all, replies François Daugeron, first president of the community of communes of La Châtre-Sainte-Sévère. This move was planned from the start. “Fenwal had made premises available during the construction of the factory [d’Azur Med, ndlr] on the Lacs site and it did not come to fruition and Fenwal needed to recover these buildings as part of its development, as was planned.“
The other reason why these famous resealable cans have not taken off: the food industry market, regrets Jean-Louis Escoffier. Impossible according to the boss of Azur Med to find a place next to the giants of bottling. However, when it was established, the Savoyard company brought a lot of hope to the department after Fenwal's big firing plan.
