The Angoulême Commercial Court on Friday ordered the sale by public auction of the assets of the Manufacture Charente (LMC), complicating hopes of a restart in the production of the famous slippers fed by three potential buyers.
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" I am very disappointed by the court's decision to reject our offer and order a public auction of the assets ... The machines risk spinning abroad ", regretted Olivier Rondinaud, former commercial director of this company liquidated in November 2019.
The grandson of the inventor of the modern Charente was allied with two other leaders of the shoe sector, Alexandre Bataille, the boss of Fargeot (Dordogne) and Vincent Rivalin, the Breton boss of the eponymous shoe maker to buy the fabrics , LMC machines and furniture. But the court found in its pleadings that " the environment of the collective procedure is not favorable to a transfer by mutual agreement ". The finished products, around 100,000 pairs of slippers, were sold to Maxplus, a Breton destocker.
Restart of production on March 15
Olivier Rondinaud, with his associates, intends to participate in this auction intended to reimburse creditors. He claims not to have given up launching " L'Atelier charentaise ", his own brand of Charentaise in " sewn-turned ", the traditional method. Production is scheduled to start on March 15 in a workshop located in La Rochefoucauld (Charente).
He is not the only one to want to revive the famous slippers: Daniel Moreau, the last producer of slippers in Charente (Montbron) is preparing to launch his traditional Charentais under the brand " L'atelier du feutre charentais ".
LMC, which employed 104 employees, had been placed in compulsory liquidation last November, the result " of numerous errors, probably of governance and strategic choices, of economic strategy ", had then said Cédric O, Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy, questioned at the National Assembly. The company, according to a source familiar with the matter, had particularly focused its marketing on the high-end by abandoning large distribution. LMC was the result of the regrouping in 2018 of four manufacturers, already in bad shape, of Charentais slippers.
Born at the end of the 19th century, the Charente region comes from the manufacturing waste of the textile and paper industries located on the Charente river. The local cobblers had the idea of recovering the felts that were used for pressing, to make slippers. They were provided with a characteristic tongue, which protected the foot of the wooden shoe, and with the very particular technique of " sewn-turned over " (sole sewn and mounted inside out, then turned over).
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