The Roannais attracts business leaders. This Monday, the president of Roannais agglomeration and mayor of Roanne Yves Nicolin presented with great fanfare the already well advanced project of Market Maker. The furniture company, headquartered in Dardilly in the Rhône, has already bought the manufacturer of convertible sofas from the Coteau Diva salon in 2020. And its boss has also chosen the Loire to set up its huge logistics base there.
300 employees on site within a few years
Gabriel Dahan, CEO of Market Maker, has invested 30 million euros to construct 49,000 square meters of buildings, the equivalent of seven football pitches, activity zone of Bonvert in Mably. The company wants to make it “its” logistics base in France, while today it relies on several warehouses scattered in different departments. The idea is to gather everything in the Loire, not far from the Rhone headquarters. “Earthworks have already started“, explains the boss. “And on delivery at the end of 2022, we will have a hundred people working on this logistics base.“If all goes well, the workforce should increase over the next few years to around 300 employees on site.
“It will be a real challenge to find the skills and resources we need in the local employment pool.“, recognizes Gabriel Dahan who, with the elected officials of Roannais agglomeration, has already contacted Pôle Emploi. In any case, these future hires are a boon for an entire territory. “We are not talking about three employees with their Fenwick, but about 300 people“, explains Robert Godot, deputy mayor of Mably in charge of economic development. “They won’t find everything there, maybe there will be hiring from outside, with families who will come to live in the region, maybe in Mably, and that’s good for the schools , it’s good for businesses and it’s good for the whole collective life of the agglomeration.“
The only thing that the elected official fears with the arrival of this logistics base in his municipality, is that the GPS does not allow delivery trucks to pass through the center of Mably while there are other possible routes. According to the boss of Market Maker, around 20 heavy goods vehicles are expected to come and go from the warehouse every day.
Big plans for Diva Salon
Regarding Diva Salon, Market Market wants to use the convertible sofa manufacturer to relocate its production. The furniture was until now manufactured in China and Central Europe, but it is not necessarily so advantageous since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, in particular because of the shortages of raw materials and the delivery times of the goods. . At Diva Salon also recruitments are to be expected. The site should also be modernized, in particular with the purchase of new machines.