Jobs will be “progressively preserved”, assures Roland Lescure. “These are firm commitments.”
“It’s good news”, rejoiced Tuesday, November 14 on franceinfo Roland Lescure, Minister Delegate in charge of Industry while Nestlé negotiates with the Italian group Italpizza the sale of the Buitoni factory in Caudry in the North. This recovery project is planned for early 2024.
ItalPizza has committed to hiring 140 people by 2027, the industry ministry said. Jobs will be gradually preserved, specifies Roland Lescure: “40 in 2024, then 70 in 2025 and ultimately 140. The advantage of pizzas is that they need to produce very quickly and so they will produce pizzas in Caudry from 2024”he assured. “These are firm commitments.”
“ItalPizza will invest more than 10 million euros in production lines”, indicated the minister. One of the two production lines had been at the heart of the food scandal. “ItalPizza wants to sell pizzas in Northern Europe. Obviously, Caudry is well placed. The employees know how to make pizzas since they made pizzas before. So we really have a firm commitment, but it is a voluntary commitment”he added.
“Europe also has good things, especially for industry”
The opportunity for the minister to praise the virtues of Europe: “Some say that Europe only brings bad things. In fact, the Tereos factory is sold to a Belgian fries producer and Buitoni is an Italian pizza producer. Europe also has good things . And in particular for industry”, he assured. Long promised to close, the Tereos sugar factory in Escaudoeuvres, in the North, has finally also found a buyer, the Belgian group Agristo.
The site has been closed since last March since the collapse of sales caused by the contaminated pizza scandal in 2022. An investigation is still underway after the death of two children, and the poisoning of ten other people who had eaten pizzas from the northern factory.
At the time of the closure last spring, management had at the same time announced the total and definitive cessation of activity at the end of the year but the 125 employees of the site had obtained that none would be laid off by on December 31, in the hope that a buyer will come forward. These exclusive negotiations between the Swiss and Italian groups are therefore a positive signal.