“We are fighting so that there is not a closure, a dry liquidation”, pleads the mayor of Orléans

Businessman Stephan Français, boss of Thomson Computing, proposed on Wednesday to take over the Orléans factory of the household appliance group, in liquidation, and save 150 jobs.

“We are fighting so that there is not a closure, a dry liquidation”pleads the mayor of Orléans Serge Grouard on the microphone from HERE (ex-France Bleu) Wednesday December 24. He defends the project to take over the Brandt site in Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle, near Orléans (Loiret), proposed Wednesday morning by industrialist Stephan Français, CEO of Thomson Computing. He plans to take on 150 employees, redirecting activity towards IT. The household appliances group was placed in liquidation on December 11.

The departmental leadership of the CGT strongly criticized the project earlier on Wednesday. She does not consider the number of employees included to be sufficient: only 150 out of the 350 at the Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle site (and 700 in France). A number with which we must nevertheless be satisfied responds Serge Grouard, since “we start from nothing“, he assures. “The number of employees today (…) is zero“, since the judicial liquidation pronounced on December 11, adds the mayor of Orléans. Without the recovery”there is no more Brandt“, he insists.

He also believes that we must “move quickly”, before employees find work, before customers turn to other brands. “We must not lose all this and that is why we must move quickly to say ‘no, Brandt, it is not over'”, affirms the councilor.