Announced at the beginning of the week, do the social plans of Auchan (2,500 jobs) and Michelin (1,250 jobs) open a hellish season on the social level? METROmy Philippe Druon, partner at Hogan Lovells, specialist in collective proceedings and restructuring, admits to having a vision “unhappy” from the future: “We are facing a deep and structural crisis in lifestyles, consumption and work. Added to this are changes such as towards electric cars. This affects almost all sectors: distribution, automotive, construction, real estate, tech…”
In companies like yours, files from companies in difficulty are arriving in increasing numbers, since it is now necessary to repay state-guaranteed loans granted during the Covid-19 pandemic, in a context of political and social instability. And this is not over: “If Trump implements his program, we will know…”M sighsmy Druon.
The automobile sector is emblematic. Concentrated by structural changes and more cyclical fragilities, it is affected both by the fall in private car sales, still 15% below its pre-Covid-19 level, and by the technological transformation with the transition to electricity and for energy prices higher than those paid by Chinese competitors.
Car manufacturers under pressure
Added to this is the tightening of European regulations on CO emissions.2 in 2025, putting pressure on builders and often on a state-guaranteed loan, obtained during the pandemic, which must be repaid.
Upon arrival, a group of companies found themselves in great difficulties. The announcement of the closure of two Michelin factories, in Vannes and Cholet (Maine and Loire), with more than 1,250 jobs, on Tuesday, November 5, shows that the situation does not spare the most solid and globalized groups. Valeo had previously announced that it was seeking buyers for three of its facilities in France, with 1,120 jobs at stake. The equipment manufacturer Forvia, another French giant, has announced the elimination of 10,000 jobs in Europe over the next five years.
Small equipment manufacturers are at the center of the crisis: in the Ardennes, Walor, which makes connecting rods for heavy vehicles (with 245 jobs in two plants), is in receivership. In the Loire, Anderton Castings, which manufactures aluminum parts and has 53 employees, has just been liquidated. The Belgian Dumarey group could have submitted a takeover bid. But he himself is in trouble. In Strasbourg it will eliminate 248 jobs at its subsidiary Powerglide (formerly Punch), which produces gearboxes for the German equipment manufacturer ZF, which has terminated its contract.
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