By Maxime-Grégory Adrien
President of the region of the Hauts-de-Franceit’s a Xavier Bertand happy who was displayed in Caudry on January 27 during theinauguration of the resumption of the old Buitoni factory by Italpizza. “With Frédéric Bricout (Mayor of Caudry, editor’s note), we were right to fight, exclaimed Xavier Bertrand, before continuing: after the brutal and scandalous departure of Buitoni, we are this morning with Marc Ferracci (Minister of the Economy, Editor’s note) and Roland Lescure (deputy for French people from abroad and former minister, editor’s note) on this Caudry site where Italpizza settles. Thank you to this family business for choosing the Hauts-de-France. The region is ready to engage financially to help them train their employees, as it will continue to fight for the ex-employees of Buitoni who have not yet found a job. ”
This inauguration “shows that politics can still change things,” says Xavier Bertrand. It would never have been possible in particular without a strong commitment to the state: from Roland Lescure first, of Marc Ferracci afterwards. ”
Italpizza says it has “already started a recruitment process of around twenty employees, the first mission of which will be the reconversion and restarting of manufacturing lines”. Then, the group “wishes to hire before the end of 2028, around 140 employees”.
Factory buyback in early 2024
The Italpizza family group bought the Caudry factory at the beginning of 2024. In a press release of the time, Italpizza explains that it is “the Italian group leader in the world in the production of high frozen pizzas range ”.
Beyond the acquisition of the Caudry production site, this press release indicates that Italpizza “will allocate more than 12 million euros in investments for modernization work in a multi-year plan which will extend from 2024 to 2028”. The factory will only produce products preceded in the oven on the two production lines.
The death of two children
The contamination of pizzas made in the factory operated by Buitoni had killed two dead in 2022. These were two children and dozens of others fell seriously after they ingested pizzas from the Fresh’Up range de Buitoni. Subsequently, at the end of March 2023, Nestlé, the owner of the brand and the factory, announced the closure of the site by then evoking “the fall in sales”, as justification for this decision.
