• A year ago, the leader in organic and fair trade coffee Malongo opened its own coffee maker manufacturing plant in La Roche-sur-Yon (Vendée).
  • Its director general Jean-Pierre Blanc says "do not regret anything" to this relocation which participates, according to him, in "the stop of the logic "I buy, I consume, I throw away".

In front of the production line that is running at full speed, Jean-Pierre Blanc drinks whey. It must be said that the bet that the general manager of Malongo had launched was strong coffee, and strewn with pitfalls. However, for the past year, it's been there: the leader in organic and fair trade coffee in France (400 employees, 120 million euros turnover), which sells beans, pods and machines, has opened its own coffee maker manufacturing plant in La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée. "We had been working on made in France for ten years to stop producing in China," says Jean-Pierre Blanc. There, there was something wrong with the way of working, it annoyed me... I was told that it was going to be complicated, that labor costs were going to explode. But the idea was really to stop the logic of 'I buy, I consume, I throw away.'"

Alongside the heavyweights of the sector, the little Poucet du café intends to do well with Eoh, its coffee machine with paper pods for the general public, presented as "a little more expensive than the others (119 euros) but finally at the right price because much more sustainable". In the 680 m² glass cell, in the heart of a commercial area, the thirty or so workers are busy assembling by hand the device, whose number of parts has been halved, in order to limit screws and assembly time.


"The majority of the components come from France, plastic and cardboard from Vendée, a department chosen because of its very important industrial fabric, which makes it possible to limit transport costs," says Guillaume Rabourdin, the director of the Vendée production company, a new subsidiary of Malongo. At the end of the chain, coffees are constantly flowing to check that the 300 machines produced daily are working properly. Control of pressure, water temperature, "12-second heating time"... Nothing should be left to chance for this coffee maker whose warranty is 5 years.

The "made in France", not so selling

With a "breakdown rate of only 0.7%", the boss of Malongo says "regret nothing" to this relocation. And this even if the adventure began with a subcontractor who finally did not do the trick, generating the need to start from scratch but allowing to multiply the pace by two by creating his own factory. And this, too, even if the made in France is not actually that seller. "Everyone is for it, but it's not the same story when you find yourself in front of the shelf," smiles Jean-Pierre Blanc, who says he does not make any margin on these machines. This is a plus, but it does not encourage the act of purchase either. »



After going through "supply problems", the Eoh coffee maker, which comes in several colors, seems to have a bright future ahead of it. Now produced in 70,000 copies per year, it attracts more and more individuals in France and abroad but also many hotels that equip their rooms. The Vendée production company, which also manufactures the central part of professional machines stamped Malongo, will soon inherit Eoh's after-sales service. Already thinking about the future evolutions of the machine, its director hopes soon to move to larger premises.

  • Economy
  • La Roche-sur-Yon
  • Pays de la Loire
  • China
  • Coffee
  • Factory
  • Relocation
  • Enterprise
  • Nice
  • Alpes-Maritimes
  • PACA