Fabien Lefèvre, the Pau kayaker who double-won the Worlds and medalled (twice) at the Olympic Games and owner of Paddler Equipment, has since stopped its operation; his employees received no such news.

Translation from Sudouest.fr by Nick Harding | Sportscene - The small start up, located on the Technocité site, has experienced a surprising turn of events. Without known economic reasons, the owner of the company producing competition canoes and kayaks has stopped production of the next batch. His decision came overnight, without warning and without explanation either to his two employees who still haven't been paid since September 1st.

The manager of Paddler Equipment is none other than double World Champion and double Olympic medallist Fabien Lefèvre.* The elite athlete owns 90% of the company founded in 2011. The site at Futuroscope in Poitiers was its headquarters.

When the enterprise started, it sub-contracted out its production, this then changed course quickly. Paddler Equipment decided to 'internalise' its boat construction, Bayonne and Technocité provided the ideal conditions to do so.

The small business develops its leading products from ultra-technological materials - a field that clearly favours the local Bayonne business district. The creator of canoes and kayaks behind the dispute with the supplier is losing money, but a settlement has been found. Compositadour, the motoring arm of Technocité, will become the new host of Paddler Equipment, the latter rented Lefèvre a warehouse of 150m². However, this space is not  currently available to rent.

When the company decided to take over production, any major investor had to subscribe to Paddler, parent company of Paddler Equipment with Philippe Chevalier, former President and CEO of Sernam, at the helm. The basics seemed solid and production of the first models started in Bayonne in January 2013.

The site employs a Project Manager and a Sales Manager, the business has been running rather well so far. Since the beginning of the year, there was a backlog of about 20 contracts with many boats destined for elite French, Spanish, American, Swedish paddlers. These contracts generated 50-60,000 euros – a satisfying beginning of the year, even very interesting!

But, after the World Championship in Prague last September, where Lefèvre participated, his employees had not heard anything from their owner-champion. If he had exchanged sporadic emails or had indicated that production would stop, orders would have been cancelled. Yet his communication was terse, he stated that stocks would be removed and that his employees didn't have to go back to work because they was no longer any available. The company is not insolvent (it can pay its dues) and its employees have not been paid since September.

Paddler Equipment will not pay more rent with Compositadour than it did with Technocité. “We find ourselves in a tricky situation” indicates the manager, even describing “the boat moulds remain in a corner while a hundred thousand euros worth of equipment waits to be used.”

Nobody seems to know Lefèvre's intentions for the small unit and no one has been able to contact him to try to find out more. Under such uncertainty, both employees have started legal proceedings with the Labour Court. The Project Manager, who also holds a 10% share in the business, has obtained a provisional sentence against Fabien Lefèvre to pay him 6000 euros, with an additional 75 euros per day of delay. These provisions of 'binding arbitration' were made on the 4th August, the Sales Manager is expected to get a hearing.

The kayakist, has emigrated to the United States and has since obtained residence; nowadays he competes under the American flag, he leaves behind him a thick web of misunderstanding.

*Fabien Lefèvre is double World Champion in K1 slalom (2002, 2003), Bronze medallist at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and Silver at those in Beijing in 2008.

Below in the comments also a link to 'La Republique' where Fabien explains himself.