The Breton industrial site, which still employed 153 employees, will permanently close its doors this Friday.
Le Saupiquet «made in France» will soon be history. The last French Saupiquet factory, located in the Moulin-Vert district of Quimper, is closing its doors this Friday. Its mackerel and sardine canning activity will be relocated to Morocco and Spain, while its approximately 153 employees will be made redundant. The CFDT, in the majority, however declared itself “satisfied with the job protection plan” implemented, and specifies that the majority of employees “will remain in Finistère” where they should be able to find a job.
The Italian Bolton Food, owner of the brand since 1999, announced the closure in June. “This project is the consequence of the decline in the canned fish market in France and Europe which has led, for Bolton Food, to reductions in sales and production volumes which translate into negative results”specified the group. According to Les Echos, the sales volume of Bolton Food in France was reduced by almost 25% between 2020 and 2023 due to competition from large retailers. “All our canned fish production sites are facing significant production overcapacity”confessed Bolton Food, especially since “Quimper had one of the lowest utilization rates in the group.” The Italian agri-food giant therefore said to itself “forced to concentrate its industrial resources to regain competitiveness. »
With the Quimper factory, Saupiquet’s French adventure ends, whose creation dates back to the end of the 19th century. A brand deeply anchored in the industrial history of the country: we owe it the invention of the rectangular tin can inseparable from sardines for many French people, or even the development of canned vegetables during the First World War. At its peak in the 1960s, Saupiquet had several dozen canneries, most of them in Vendée and Brittany. The Quimper site, the last vestige of this era, is added to the already long list of factories closed at the end of the year.
