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Perrier - Kriegswirtschaft und Kriegsverpflichtungen der Arbeitskräfte

Autor: Nicolas Marty
Jahr: 2005, Heftnummer: 2, Seite(n): 197-217

The Source Perrier, the leading French company of the mineral water industry, nevertheless was created with British capital at the beginning of the century. The firm acted very discreetly in the time of the Second World War. It is true that between 1941 and 1944, on the whole, sales to the German army made up 40% of its turnover. However, the stakes in this period are important. What was the real impact of the state-controlled economic apparatus of the regime of Vichy , that of the German supervision, the extent of the ruptures generated by the war in the economic field as well as in the working conditions and the social relations?
The war isolated the firm from its traditional markets: the British dominions, the USA , the French colonial Empire. It was not the system of the state-controlled economy that exerted strong pressure on Perrier, but the scarcity of all necessary supplies (bottles, electrical energy, transport etc.). The offers made by the German navy allowed to solve a lot of these problems and to guarantee the survival of the firm. Its capital was transferred to the United States in order not to appear as a British firm at the outbreak of the war.
However, the history of commercial and industrial strategies cannot be disassociated from the working community from which they are born. The management of the factory took care of the workers in a completely new form, within the framework of the Charte du Travail of the regime of Vichy . The attribution of many benefit schemes facilitated to a large extent the life of the factory workers. The company's very limited profits during the war, the great care of for its staff shown by the management, and its status as a British-American company limited the impact of the economic purge after the Libération.