According to our information, a negotiation period with the unions is opening until the end of December. But the implementation of the plan will be fast. A first wave of voluntary departures is currently planned for January and February. As of March 2023, a period of forced departures will be opened subject to conditions “points” : seniority, family situation, etc… Therefore, at this time the number of dismissals will be known. Management claims to want to move on “in dialogue”.
To worry
This decision sounds like a blow to many local observers, after the company, supported by its parent company, the Japanese Nidec, which bought the group from the American Emerson in 2017, announced an investment plan of 30 million euros, in May 2019. on their Charente sites (read more below). investments of modernization » Y “improvement” that have been carried out, Laurent Barbaud would like to underline. The truth is that three years later, and implicitly in a world economy shaken by successive crises, the discourse has been adjusted. With the announcement of a structural reorganization. In a press release, the company explains that it must “safeguard its competitiveness in the industrial engine market (and) return to positive economic results.” The project involves in particular “reduce the level of fixed costs”preventing the latter “to develop in high-volume markets” Y “deploy long-term investments”. Clearly, the company is losing money, is not competitive in low-margin markets, and must now fund itself to secure its future investments. For Laurent Barbaud, the very poor financial health of the company also presided over this decision. “After several years of loss, the debt accumulated and therefore we had to react “, unfolds. The international context has also come to upset the gears: “The increase in the cost of raw materials, such as supply and logistics, weighed on our results”, believe the leader “Which also forces us to have a simpler and more rational organization.”
The purpose of the reorganization is have self-financing capabilities for investments in innovation and modernization of its industrial tool”. In concrete terms, the planned organization would be based “in the pooling of resources, the modernization of tools, in particular IT, and in the strengthening of a commercial dynamic already deployed on a global scale”. All the positions cut in Charente will be in the offices. On the employees’ side, one form of concern predominates: “Until we have the exact titles of the positions in question, we are very concerned”says an employee.
The debt accumulated and that’s why we had to react