The appliance company founded in 1902 has closed in France 0 16

The last French manufacturer of large household appliances, Brandt, will be liquidated.

This is sad news just before Christmas for the 750 employees who worked at the company's two factories near Orléans and in Vendôme. It is also a blow for all French citizens who care about the fate of domestic industry.

Since 2014, the production sites where the iconic French brands Brandt, Vedette, Sauter, and De Dietrich were manufactured belonged to the Algerian conglomerate Cevital. However, the company could not cope with the crisis: the decision for its final liquidation was made by the Commercial Court of Nanterre.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance expressed its "deep sorrow" regarding the liquidation of the "French flagship."

The company named Brandt was founded back in 1902 by Parisian Edgar Brandt. At that time, it was not even a company, but simply a workshop specializing in the production of forged metal products. Over the years, production expanded, and a whole metallurgical plant was established, which the French government entrusted with military orders. Interestingly, it was Brandt that produced the bronze tombstone that crowns the grave of the Unknown Soldier beneath the legendary Arc de Triomphe.

After World War II, the company's management was able to finally determine its development strategy. Thus, all production capacities were redirected to the production of household appliances. In 1950, the first washing machines and refrigerators designed by Brandt engineers rolled off the assembly line. A little later, the company began producing knitting and ironing machines.

Six years later, the first merger of Brandt with Hotchkiss occurred. Thanks to this, financial bases and production capacities were increased, which helped achieve a several-fold increase in production scale. Thus, Brandt began its journey to becoming a global leader in household appliance manufacturing.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the company, thanks to its merger with Houston-Thomson, was able to take a leading position in its country in the production of freezers, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, and kitchen stoves. In the mid-1990s, a merger with ELFI took place. The largest merger occurred in 2002. At that time, together with Elco, a group of companies called ElcoBrandt was established. In 2005, their shares were acquired by Fagor. Thanks to the huge financial investments from one of the most renowned European household appliance manufacturers and access to the latest developments, Brandt ranked 5th in the entire European Union in the production of household electrical goods. This brand is now known in more than 100 countries. The company owns 8 factories, 7 of which are located in France and 1 in Italy.