The manufacturer of Caddy supermarket trolleys once again placed in receivership

The company has just been placed in receivership on Tuesday for the fourth time since 2012. It is the typical example of the company, tossed from buyer to buyer, which is unable to resist international competition.

The famous manufacturer of Caddy trolleys was placed in receivership on Tuesday May 28 by the commercial chamber of the Saverne judicial court (Bas-Rhin). This is the fourth legal reorganization for Caddy since 2012, to the great dismay of unions and employees. This time, the company is placed under observation until July 2, when the courts will take another look at the situation.

Owned since 2022 by the Cochez group, specializing in transport and industrial services, based in Valenciennes, in the Nord department. Check who bought it from a Polish company, itself specialized in the manufacture of suitcase racks for airports and hotels. The group now employs 110 people, its site is located in Dettwiller, in Bas-Rhin.

In serious financial difficulties, Caddy notably displays a debt of some 700,000 euros to Urssaf, the organization which collects social security contributions. This is the typical example of a company, tossed around from buyer to buyer, which is unable to resist international competition. Even less so at a time when plastic is banned, which is used in the manufacture of shopping carts that we, consumers, regularly push to go stock up for the week at the supermarket or hypermarket. The shopping cart is light for the consumer, but the pressure is strong for the manufacturer, who has also announced in 2023 the end of its production of plastic shopping carts.

Born in 1928, Caddy has become common in the minds of the French, in the same way as “Frigidaire” for refrigerators. It finds its origins in the practice of golf. The “caddy” is, still today, the cart on wheels which allows golfers’ clubs to be transported. At the beginning of the 1930s, trolleys produced with wire were adopted by supermarkets at the time of the rise of the consumer society. The setbacks have multiplied since the start of the Covid pandemic with a significant drop in turnover. The rest of Caddy’s story is being written.