Nanterre, France – The Tribunal des Activités Économiques in Nanterre on Friday approved a bid of €18.6 million from Cafom, a distributor of home equipment in French overseas territories, to acquire the brands, patents, and remaining inventory of Brandt, the last major French manufacturer of large household appliances. The decision marks the final step in the liquidation of the century-old company, which entered judicial recovery in October and was officially liquidated in December.
The ruling followed a review of 36 offers submitted for Brandt’s assets, encompassing the Brandt, Vedette, Sauter, and De Dietrich brands. While some local officials had hoped for a plan that would have revived industrial operations at the company’s plants near Orléans and Vendôme, in the Loir-et-Cher region, most proposals focused on acquiring stock and spare parts.
The Centre-Val de Loire region and the Orléans metropolitan area had jointly submitted a bid, in partnership with Gladius, a New Caledonian company in the appliance sector since 2024. Their proposal aimed to acquire all of Brandt’s assets and brands, initially focusing on restoring after-sales service. Within two to three years, they hoped to restart activity at the main industrial site near Orléans, which produced ovens and hobs and employed approximately 350 people, though they did not commit to specific job creation numbers.
François Bonneau, President of the Centre-Val de Loire region, expressed his disappointment with the outcome. “By rejecting the only bid offering a future for industry, the disappearance of Brandt is confirmed, as is the end of ‘made in France’,” he said in a statement. He added that the decision represents “a very heavy blow to the economic and social landscape” and a setback for efforts to reindustrialize the region. The region and the Orléans metropolitan area jointly stated they could not “accept this disappearance of our industrial heritage.”
Brandt, owned since 2014 by the Algerian group Cevital, had a turnover of €260 million. The company had been struggling with the downturn in the large appliance sector, experiencing a 3.9% decline in sales last year following previous losses. The liquidation will result in the loss of over 700 jobs across the two sites in Vendôme and Orléans, as confirmed by multiple sources. A workers’ cooperative takeover plan, which had received support from the French state and regional authorities, was previously rejected by the tribunal in December, despite a pledge of €1 million in funding.
The decision follows a period of uncertainty for Brandt employees. In Vendôme, approximately sixty workers gathered in front of the factory to express their anger, with some burning administrative documents as a symbolic gesture of farewell. Célia Pinto, an employee, described the decision as “shocking,” adding, “We did everything, but it didn’t work. We were fine here, we’re all in shock. The Christmas holidays will be sad.” CGT secretary Melkonyan Khachatur stated, “It’s rage, anger, incomprehension. We will have fought until the end.”
