Bruno Bonduelle is gone
It is a great regional figure who has disappeared. At the dawn of his 90th birthday, Bruno Bonduelle, the former CEO of Bonduelle Establishments, died following a long illness.
Born in 1933 in Renescure, in Audomarois, he first studied at Science-Po Paris before traveling, notably to the United States. Later, between 1985 and 1994, he took over the management of the eponymous family group. At the time, it was the move of the headquarters to Villeneuve-d’Ascq, the acquisition of Cassegrain and the internationalization of the group, which then achieved nearly 3 billion euros in turnover and employed 14,500 people around the world, including 4,600 in France…
In all, Bonduelle will have up to 56 production and processing sites and will sell its products in 80 countries. Nearly 170 years after the creation of the first company by the two Louis
– Bonduelle and Lesaffre –, anxious to prepare a future for their children, Bonduelle has become a world-class group, reflecting the dynamism of the 19th century, but also its ability to last…
A bold visionary
Bruno Bonduelle makes the transition between two industrial eras. Audacious and determined, he did not stay at the head of the group for very long. Other ambitions have tempted him for a long time: public life. The former entrepreneur then begins a phase of his life where he will no longer be content to be an agitator of ideas: he wants to submit them to decision-making circles. Worried about blockages and institutional delays, he upset the game and carried a list in the regional elections of 1992 with ecologists and centrists.
He took up the pen the following year and posed as a mediator between Martine Aubry and Daniel Percheron, whose relations were then strained: in 25 proposals to end the declinehe calls on the two politicians to launch the necessary projects in Lille and the region: “really nize the Grand Place, promote the extension of the Catho towards the Deûle, “Brusselize” our addresses, continue the RER Lille-Lens, metropolise the mining pedestrian area, merge Nord and Pas-de-Calais, think Nord-Picardie in horizon 2030»…
In fact, he did not mince his words… We remember a conference given in Boulogne-sur-Mer, 20 years ago, where he declared, in front of a dumbfounded room, that the Comilog factory (main employer of the agglomeration and first client of the port) was “a wart in the landscapeand that its closure would give new impetus to the agglomeration. A few days later, the Comilog group announced the future closure of the site, making dozens of hectares free when there was no more land available…
Praises from the politicians
His death was the subject of many reactions this weekend. For Xavier Bertrand, President of the Hauts-de-France Region, “He was an agitator of ideas, always on the move, as on the Metropolis that he wanted to bring out of its walls so that his role as a locomotive drives the mining basin, or on the perimeter of the regions. He provoked, but to provoke thought, not to provoke. I remember from him that when some saw the region in grey, he was one of those, like Pierre Mauroy, who put blue in the sky”.
Mayor of Lille, Martine Aubry, meanwhile, paid tribute to him: “It is a strong personality from the economic world who is leaving us, he who forged a family business that has become international, whose name has left a lasting mark on the North, our region and well beyond. Bruno Bonduelle had a passion for debates on the major regional development issues in which he was born and which he supported with the fervor of a tireless ambassador. A man of character, of great brilliance, with rich ideas, he put his determination at the service of the Lille metropolis and its development.»
Philippe Hourdain, President of the Hauts-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry, underlined the values that inhabited Bruno Bonduelle: “He was a very great gentleman who only served the general interest, his region, businesses. He was a very big inspiration.»
The Gazette Nord-Pas de Calais presents its sincere condolences to his family, his children and his wife Chantal. His funeral will take place this Friday, September 23 at 9:30 a.m., at the Saint Maurice church in Lille.