The queen of cradles Sophie the Giraffe took a blow to the head. A manufacturing facility of the producer of the well-known toy liked by infants as a lot as their nostalgic mother and father was raided on Thursday in Haute-Savoy. This search within the Rumilly manufacturing facility of the Vulli group, specializing in child toys and childcare, passed off as a part of an investigation for “deception” opened for the reason that group was accused of produce the famous toy in Chinastamping it made in France, introduced the Annecy prosecutor’s workplace, confirming data from the Dauphiné Libéré.
The recognition of Sophie la Giraffe, created in France in 1961, has gone far past its borders. The pure rubber latex animal permits tens of millions of infants around the globe to good their superb grip however can also be designed to calm their teething. Nonetheless, since a Mediapart investigation at the start of Could, Vulli has been accused of manufacturing the toy in China whereas perpetuating its popularity as made in France. Fraud Repression (DGCCRF) has since opened an investigation. Contacted by AFP at the start of Could, the administration indicated that it couldn’t touch upon the present process.
Somewhat Chinese language or not, definitely costly
The boss of Vulli, Alain Thirion, then confirmed to AFP that his firm was the topic of an investigation and acknowledged the manufacture of the toy in China, a “momentary state of affairs” he pleaded. And this, in response to him, due to difficulties within the manufacturing charges of the brand new manufacturing facility in Saint-Nabord, within the Vosges: “Vulli has its (…) “bare” giraffes manufactured in China”, however they’re “all completed and above all checked one after the other in France”, he assured. And in addition to elucidate that the toy had been manufactured in China “partly” for round thirty years however that demand had causes delays to pile up “for a number of years” as a result of the Saint-Nabord manufacturing facility was not finalized and Vulli needed to name on Chinese language subcontractors to fabricate “all” of sure giraffes.
Nonetheless, Mediapart claimed that the manufacturing of the toy had been massively subcontracted in Asia “no less than since 2013”, a number of years earlier than the beginning of Saint-Nabord. And that copies of Sophie la Girafe proceed to reach in complete containers in France, utterly completed, to be packaged in packaging highlighting a French origin. “We’re in discussions with the DGCCRF” on what the time period “made in France” means, Alain Thirion defined to AFP at the start of Could.
Alleging a false French origin on a product can represent a misleading business observe, punishable by a felony sanction of as much as 10% of turnover.
