The French branch of the Tupperware company has found a buyer

Will the famous plastic food brand reborn from its ashes? This is the ambitious challenge of the French entrepreneur Cédric Meston who aims to relaunch Tupperware in Europe.

It is a sacred bet in which Cédric Meston, 31 years old, takes over the French part of the iconic part of Tupperware, born in 1946 in the United States, launched, and which knew its heyday in the 1970s, but which in France went out of fashion. In 2018, the company closed its factory in Indre-et-Loire, dismissing more than 200 people. And, since October 2024, the French branch has been in safeguard procedure, there are barely around thirty employees and 2,500 visitors, independent advisers.

Passed by Mac Kinsey, Cédric Meston, this Télécoms Paris engineer has already co-founded a start-up, Happyvore, a brand of plant products, which offers alternatives to meat. There, with two other entrepreneurs, he takes 50% of the capital of Tupperwarre France. The announcement was made Tuesday, March 25. The other half is taken up by part of management. This is important, because it is a guarantee of success to keep executives and employees who know the company, its history, the market. Cédric Meston explains that his model is the history of Duralex glasses, which were relaunched after a takeover by employees.

But Tupperwarre sells plastic products, a material that no longer has the coast. It is for this reason that Cédric Meston wants to focus on other materials: stainless steel, glass, or even plastic, but recycled. New products, gourds, goblets, bought from the parent company, in the United States in particular, since there is no longer any Tupperware factory in France or in Europe. As surprising as it may seem, to relaunch the activity, he will keep the system of the famous Tupperware meetings, with home sales made by advisers he calls “Culinary advisers“. But meetings, there too revamped: the sellers will transform into Instagram or Tiktok influencers. The bet is that the kitchen market is expanding, that the French like to cook, in particular to prepare their lunch box.

There is a real consumer attachment to ancestral brands and Tupperwarre is one. We have seen societies close to bankruptcy getting up, such as Légo or Nintendo. But will it be enough to relaunch Tupperware? It is not won, especially since the buyer does not communicate the figures. Tupperwarre is very indebted. It is up to him to present a schedule to the court, knowing that he aims to relaunch Tupperware in Europe.