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Calvados: the successful bet of the employees of the Jeannette biscuit factory
With its liquidation in 2013, the future of the Jeannette biscuit factory seemed written. Where are the employees now ten years later, those who had taken their destiny into their own hands? – (Franceinfo)
With its liquidation in 2013, the future of the Jeannette biscuit factory seemed written. Where are the employees now ten years later, those who had taken their destiny into their own hands?
They are experiencing a second youth, ten years after a planned disappearance. Founded in 1850, the Jeannette biscuit factory, placed in receivership, was saved thanks to its employees. “It was a brand that should not die. We beaten for, we succeeded, it is absolutely necessary that Jeannette continues to live”confides Marie-Claire Marie, a former employee, and a resistant. She participated, for 344 days, in blocking the company.
“It’s our own Proust madeleine”
After a year of struggle, the company found a first buyer in 2015, then a second in 2019. Marie-Claire Marie joined the company at the age of 16. “The Jeannette madeleine is our very own Proust madeleine. It was always on the table at mom’s”, she adds. André Alcala, faithful from the start, occupied the factory at night. “We had to come at night, so the bailiffs wouldn’t come, or the police”he remembers.
“We are going to try to make our elders proud,” says Benoît Martinet, the general manager of the biscuit factory. (…) It makes us want to fight to develop the company even more.” After four years of presence, he and the 24 employees have doubled the turnover: 4 million euros.
