the Legal company in Le Havre placed in compulsory liquidation

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The decision of the Paris commercial court has been reached Tuesday December 17, 2024. Employees of the Café Légal factory, located in the Bléville district, learned shortly after 9 a.m. of the judicial liquidation of the roasting company, established for 170 years in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime). “We were on the site, we waited for the verdict, our factory director with us,” says Véronique*, a worker at the production site.

The decision of the commercial court results in the shutdown of the production site and the dismissal of 110 employeesin Le Havre and in the Parisian offices.

“There were tears,” confides the 56-year-old from Le Havre. We don’t even know what to do now. There are young people in the company, they will easily find work. At 50, it’s complicated for us. »

No recovery solution

The court ruled that the only takeover offer submitted did not present sufficient guarantees. “We had a sword of Damocles above the head for years,” sighs the Le Havre resident, who became a multi-skilled employee following a reclassification due to occupational illness.

Suffering from a disability, the assembly line worker still has five years to work. Joining the company as a line driver in 1995, she met her partner, an assistant driver, who is currently on leave. Like him, she has the feeling of having left her health there for years. “I was saved, but many were not able to be saved”, as departures were also less and less replaced.

You have to go back to 2007 to see the sign of first difficultieswith a first backup plan, retraces Véronique. “The company’s debts were frozen for 10 years. » Enough, at the time, to find a little hope. “Activity was picking up a little. We left the backup plan for a little while, and afterwards, the difficulties returned as before,” she laments.

Placement in receivership in October 2024

From 2021, certain bonuses, including that of seniority, reinstated the same year after almost 20 years of cessation throughout the agri-food sector, are not paid. “We were told that the company did not have the financial means,” reports the employee.

In 2022, Michel Ohayon takes the reins of the company. “It came to nothing,” sighs the employee. Barely a year later, in 2023, the company found a new buyer, FNB Private Equity.

But nothing works. The company is finally placed in receivership on Tuesday October 8, 2024, in the hope of finding a lasting recovery solution. “Old debts have been erased; this time, we had hope of a recovery without the financial liabilities,” observes Véronique.

Still according to her, the takeover offer was not enough. “They put 5 million euros on the table, even if the region had guaranteed one million, that’s what we needed to last a month of production. Even we knew it wasn’t viable. »

With each new decision, we no longer lived, we were afraid

“A historic rise in coffee prices”

“Why do others succeed and not us? », asks the employee today, who knows that “it’s over”. She does not hesitate to speak of “bad management”, citing positive examples such as the case of the Méo company in the north of France.

In reality, Café Légal has mainly borne the brunt of the “historic rise in coffee prices”, specifies the company, which is also confirmed by Véronique.

“In terms of orders, we lost a lot of customers. In the space of a year, it was a massacre. They ended up mixing the morning and afternoon shifts to make one: there was not enough work for everyone,” describes the mother of grown-up children who are still students.

In a desperate move to save their business, members of the staff elected to the CSE went to Le Havre town hall a few weeks ago. According to Véronique, Édouard Philippe was committed to them. “If society did not survive, we would be given priority for jobs,” reports the woman who just wants to believe it. “We don’t really know what will happen to us now. »

In the meantime, “a judicial liquidator will supervise the procedure until its conclusion and will ensure that the rights of employees and creditors are respected”, indicates the company in a press release.

* assumed first name

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