“I have a city of 1,100 inhabitants and soon a vacant industrial land of 10,000 square meters. What do I do with it? » On October 24, the PMA group (Le Gaulois, Loué, Marie and, more recently, Pierre Martinet) announced to its social and economic committee (CSE) the closure of the Blancafort turkey slaughterhouse (Cher) on March 31, 2025 Its mayor, Pascal Margerin (no label), is furious.
“They treated employees as if they were worthless, offering them despicable redundancy bonuses. About twenty of them are installed in the town, most within a 25 kilometer radius. They will have to travel far away, with their families, to find work elsewhere, as the region is rapidly sinking into deindustrialization. The other two factories in our area make parts for diesel boilers that the country no longer wants or parts for F1 engines for a manufacturer that is going to abandon the competition.summarizes the councilor.
Purchased in 2012 from the Doux company by the Sarthe LDC group, the Blancafort slaughterhouse kills up to 70,000 turkeys per week and employs 240 people. Production then declined, partly due to foreign competition and the growing French appetite for chicken. In 2023 it represented 80% of poultry demand. “Turkey consumption in France has fallen by 42% in twenty years, explains a spokesperson for the LDCs. Despite an investment of 14.5 million euros since 2015, the activity generated losses of 31 million euros, of which 9 million in the year alone. [2023]. Despite the search for alternative solutions, continuing the work is economically impossible. »
The site’s current rate is 20,000 turkeys per week, processed by 119 workers. A difficult job, with a salary slightly above the minimum wage thanks to bonuses, especially because of the cold. LDC rejected the hypothesis of a conversion from the slaughterhouse to chicken. “If they had a chicken slaughterhouse, they tell us it would be able to process 500,000, or even 1 million animals per week, like German or Dutch slaughterhouses. It’s impossible to do it here.”underlines an employee member of the CSE. The fear of relocation is noticeable, especially since 1Ahem In August 2024, LDC formalized the acquisition of Indykpol, the turkey market leader in Poland, owner of farms and processing factories and with 1,000 employees.
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