Bobcat celebrate 50th anniversary of telehandler plant in France

On 12 July 2013 Bobcat held a ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bobcat telescopic handler plant at Pontchateau in Loire-Atlantique in France.

The event, which was attended by almost 250 people, included local dignatories and former employees of the plant. To mark the occasion, a commemorative plate, produced by one of the workers in the factory, was unveiled on the front wall of the plant. 

Visitors were treated to a full-day programme which contained a factory tour, speeches from plant management including anecdotes from the previous 50 years, an exhibition of old Sambron and new Bobcat machines, demonstrations and the chance to try out the new machines for themselves.  

Among the local dignatories were André Trillard, the senator for Loire Atlantique; Christophe Prioux, the deputy mayor of Guérande; Bernard Clouet, the mayor of Pontchateau and Philippe Belliot, the mayor of Saint-Anne-sur-Brivet.

Current employees at the plant acted as guides for the factory tour and took pride in showing former colleagues and the other visitors around the site. For the ex-Pontchateau personnel, it provided the perfect occasion to check out how much had changed over the years, and to compare the state-of-the-art processes and procedures in place today in the factory, with the tools and materials they used to employ when they worked at the facility.