Type
Bankruptcy
Country
France
Region
Location of affected unit(s)
Sector
Information / Communication
Publishing Of Information; Production And Programming Of Audiovisual
Publishing Activities
58.13 - Publishing of newspapers

1,650 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
Announcement Date
3 November 2011
Employment effect (start)
18 November 2011
Foreseen end date
30 November 2011

Description

The Commercial Court of Lyon has announced the liquidation of the independent newspaper publisher Comareg and its printer subsidiary Hebdo Print, with 1650 job cuts. The 1150 employees of Comared and the 500 of Hebdoprint - including 150 in Tinqueux (Marne), 80 in Lomme (Nord) ans 65 in Iffendic (Ille-et-Vilaine) - will be dismissed in the coming 15 days.

Since 2008, Comareg had to make face to the internet competitors such as "Leboncoin.fr" or "seloger.com" and started to reduce its workforce from 3000 by the end of 2007 to 2500 in 2010, and finally to 1650 after a social plan launched in 2011. The group failed to maintain its revenues. The turnover dropped to 227 million Euros last year and estimated 150 million this year, despite the recovery plan in place in the spring.

This case is reported to be one of the largest social plans and collective redundancies in France this year.


Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2011), Comareg, Bankruptcy in France, factsheet number 72672, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/72672.