Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The management of Nestlé Waters France, owner of Perrier sparkling natural mineral water, has announced a reorganisation of the only production site for this water, located in Vergèze (Gard). Management believes that San Pellegrino (Perrier's Italian competitor, also part of the Nestlé Waters group) has lower production costs. The company wants to equip itself with 'a more flexible, agile and competitive organisation', according to the director of Nestlé Waters South.
The management intends to negotiate an agreement on the management of jobs and career paths that would lead, by 2024, to the voluntary departure of 250 employees (out of a total workforce of a thousand). The plan will include an age component, allowing certain employees to take early retirement. Nestlé Waters plans to invest €40 million to introduce the latest technological innovations into its production processes. On the other side, unions said 'this plan aims to increase the profitability of Nestlé Waters and not to save a struggling factory'.
Previous reorganisations have been carried out in recent years: in 2003, Nestlé Waters France announced a restructuring plan affecting 1,047 jobs (including at Vergèze) out of 4,142. France. In 2008, the group announced a restructuring plan for its sites in Vittel and Contrexeville in Eastern France, with 250 job cuts. And finally, in June 2019, the group has announced between 110 and 120 job cuts, in its activities at Vittel and Contrexéville (Vosges), which will result in 120 jobs cus by 2022, based on voluntary departures.
Eurofound (2020), Nestlé Waters Supply Sud, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 102420, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/102420.