From one unit to another, the Mushrooms of Normandy are bustling with activity in Creully (Calcados). Tractors, hoists and employees move from one building to another. Behind the doors of modern hangars built during the company’s strong expansion between 2015 and 2017, button mushrooms stretch as far as the eye can see. “We produce 90 tons a week,” says boss Bruno Capelli, head of the site for twenty years. The entrepreneur is concerned. About twenty employees are missing to complete the workforce of 160 employees today.
The Mushrooms of Normandy are not immune to the national problem of the lack of manpower. Why these difficulties? Unattractive wages? “Here, people can work overtime, all paid. Unskilled people find themselves with a salary equivalent to a Bac + 3/Bac + 4 level”, answers Bruno Capelli.
The price of gasoline? “We are not 70 km from a big city. Bayeux and Creully are close. And employees come from Caen by carpooling, ”qualifies the boss. Not enough candidates? Truth be told, yes. But the administrative conditions for hiring are not always met, to the point that the structure must “manage the staff on a day-to-day basis”, without much visibility, limiting itself to running at 80% of the plant’s potential.
“In the morning, you start by looking at what you can’t do”
More than a few explanations in particular, Bruno Capelli regrets “a system where, in the morning when you arrive on the site, you start by looking at what you cannot do”. At this time, the employer must give up recruiting several motivated foreign candidates, some already familiar with the Mushrooms of Normandy.
“The administrative services of the State are overwhelmed. The health crisis has caused a backlog. Residence permit files are still pending”, deplores the man who had to part with a dozen employees because of the end of validity of their papers. Their renewal requests pending, the company, which claims to “hire them on the same conditions as the French”, can no longer make them work. “We are losing very good elements and at the same time, it is difficult to find people locally”.
“If I had more employees, they would work fewer hours”
With purchasing power at the top of the new government’s pile, the financial attractiveness of jobs is in question. “If they work 35 hours, people can’t live,” says Bruno Capelli, quick enough to encourage overtime, all recorded and paid for by clocking in. On average, its employees work 42 to 43 hours per week.
To illustrate his point on the “system” which would complicate the life of companies, the boss develops: “I lack people, so people work more hours and earn a better salary. But fatigue can set in. If I had more employees, they would work fewer hours and the salary would decrease. However, with the aid and the costs, it is sometimes no longer worth coming to work”.
“Me, I just want people who want to work. We gladly take people with a low level of qualifications, as long as they are motivated. Unfortunately, there are far too many hazards created by the current system. Result: the economy suffers”, assures Bruno Capelli, who also deplores the work constraints for young employees. “They say that companies don’t take on young people, but it’s very supervised, on the schedules and the tasks that they can or cannot perform”.
“You have to be brave or crazy to run a business in France”
Enough to give knots to the head of this entrepreneur, who keeps an eye on the competitiveness of his structure in the face of foreign competition. Because the demand from supermarkets and wholesalers is not weakening. It remains to be able to answer it. “We see mushrooms imported from Eastern countries. It’s annoying from an ecological point of view, ”creases Bruno Capelli, worried about the good balance of the profession in the years to come. “We will have to modernize or else French products will disappear from the shelves. But when I say modernize, I mean robotize”. With perhaps fewer jobs at stake.
With the end of the university year, the Champignons de Normandie benefit from the reinforcement of seasonal students. Their employer also hopes to see the file of certain foreign candidates progress to give them work and densify its workforce a little. Visibility remains very limited.
For him, lasting solutions to the lack of manpower will go through training: “You have to give the culture of the company to young people, by developing learning, by inviting them to come and see the work”. The health crisis and the consequences of the Ukrainian conflict would have “broken an already wobbly system”. And to add: “You have to be brave or crazy to run a business in France”. At the Creully mushroom farm as elsewhere, courage will already consist in finding employees.
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