The paper manufacturer Condat, a subsidiary of the Spanish group Lecta that employs around 200 people in the Dordogne, announced on Monday, October 20, that it was requesting the suspension of its debts while it found a buyer. “An investment bank specialized in the stationery sector has been commissioned and has already received expressions of interest,” the factory management explained in a press release.
The search for a buyer was announced to the unions during an extraordinary meeting of the social and economic committee last Monday by the new president of Condat, Dominique Bernard, a restructuring specialist appointed in October. The century-old town of Lardin-Saint-Lazare, a town of 2,000 inhabitants between Périgueux and Brive-la-Gaillarde, remained the largest private employer in the Dordogne before a social plan, in 2023, led to 174 layoffs, almost half of the workforce.
Energy costs, Trump tariffs…
In late August, elected officials warned about Condat’s financial situation and the future of the factory, which once had up to 1,200 employees but is now slowing down. Demand for coated paper, its historical market, has plummeted (-70%) since 2011, as the plant stopped manufacturing it two years ago to focus on specialty papers (glassine for self-adhesive labels), while modernizing its production facilities by installing a new, more economical boiler, “in full operation” since February.
Despite this, Condat has been affected by the “significant increase in energy costs” and, recently, by the increase in US customs duties, which has led paper manufacturers “to retreat into an already saturated European market”, management says. The Lardin-Saint-Lazare plant has a production capacity of around 115,000 tons per year and its estimated turnover for 2025 is 100 million euros, according to the statement.
Source: BFM TV
