Production resumes at the Volvic bottling site, two days after an arson fire

Mineral water production is resuming at the Volvic site (Danone group) in Puy-de-Dôme, the Volvic Water Company announced on Friday May 3. “Thanks to the exceptional mobilization of employees (…) to rehabilitate the installations, production is being started”, declared a company spokesperson at midday. An arson fire hit a technical room during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, leading to the shutdown of all production.

This part of the building, which contained compressors, had been judged “quite strategic” by the factory director Emmanuel Gerardin, because it supplied the site’s installations. The harm is “difficult to quantify” to be present “a few million bottles in one day”he added, condemning an act “serious and intolerable”. Some 300 employees had been placed on technical unemployment.

A complaint was filed and an investigation was opened, carried out by the gendarmerie research section, to try to clarify how the events unfolded. An inscription was found on a wall, saying: “Water extractivism? No, but what about water”since deleted by the company.

Locally, the bottler is the subject of challenges from environmental associations and the owner of a fish farm who is taking the fight to court. They condemned this act, like local elected officials. The Volvic factory employs around 800 people, plus 200 temporary jobs.