At the time, the announcement caused quite a stir. In May 2023, the Rennes-based industrial group Le Duff, owner of Brioche dorée bakeries and Del Arte pizzerias, decided not to set up a new frozen bread and pastry factory for its Bridor brand in Liffré, Brittany. The reason given was that popular opposition was too strong in this commune of 8,000 inhabitants in the Ille-et-Vilaine region, located in the countryside about 20 kilometers from Rennes.

The mayor (left-wing independent) Guillaume Bégué, along with most of the local elected officials, were upset by the decision, even though the arrival of the plant, with 150 jobs initially planned, then 500 promised after a few years, was supposed to give the town some oxygen, after the closure, in 2017 and 2018, of the SVA Jean Rozé slaughterhouse and of the automotive parts manufacturer Delphi – with more than 400 jobs lost.

Initiated back in 2018, the project hardly sparked any debate in its early stages – it was even validated after a public consultation organized by the Commission nationale du débat public (CNDP). But, from 2021 onward, local residents of the future plant, supported by local environmental associations and activists from Europe Ecologie-Les Greens and La France Insoumise, set up a collective of opponents, worrying about neighborhood nuisances (noise, traffic, etc.) and the impact on water resources in the area, which was just hit by two summer droughts in a row. "At the height of the protests, around 500 people turned out, not all of them local, for a town of 8,000 inhabitants," said Bégué, who regretted that the debate was "infiltrated by a minority who shouted louder than the silent majority."

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