Behind the Oxford diaries, the absurd situation of the laid-off employees of the Lecas Industries paper mill

It's school diary season in supermarkets. Lecas Industries, a factory with sixty-eight employees in Nersac (Charente), manufactured those under the Oxford and L'Etudiant brands, or those with the Harry Potter and Naruto logos, until 2024, marketed by the Hamelin group, one of the European leaders in stationery, based in Caen – the company behind the Conquérant notebooks. Integrated into the group, Lecas Industries became a subsidiary again in 2021, with Hamelin remaining its almost sole customer. The cessation of its orders in September 2024 marked the closure of the company.

Ten months later, his employees are in a ludicrous situation in the middle of summer: laid off, their job protection plan (PSE) suspended, without income. "If this continues, I'm going to have to sell my house, I can't repay my loan," says one of them (the employees spoke on condition of anonymity). "I'm dipping into my savings, but it's starting to get critical." confides another. They are to hold a general meeting on Monday, July 28.

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