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.
Swedish group Essity (former SCA), manufacturer of sanitary paper products including kitchen towels and toilet paper, have announced a restructuring plan involving about 174 job cuts. The management has started the information and consultation process. The reorganisation could lead to the closure, scheduled for the last quarter of 2018, of its plant at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray where 124 people are currently employed. The cuts also include 50 employees at its plant in Hondouville (Calvados) out of a total workforce of 260.
According to the unions, the management stressed that napkin production was not profitable and that the site suffers from the ban on plastic cotton swabs. A former large reorganisation was recorded on the ERM Database in 2016 with about 200 jobs cuts affecting the two sites (130 at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray and 70 at Hondouville). The Swedish group has undergone restructuring in France in the past, with 280 job cuts in 2010, 162 in 2013.
Update 1/08/2018. Essity has confirmed the closure of its site at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray by the end of 2018. The company has negotiated an employment safeguard plan with the trade unions. According to the CGT, the plan is generous and all the demands of the trade unions have been accepted. The restructuring will cost about €47 million to the Swedish group. The plan will lead to cut 249 positions, including 58 vacant position. Therefore, 191 employees are affected by the job cuts: 123 employees at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 50 at Hondouville and 18 at Kunheim. According to the management, Essity will invest €20 million in its other Frech sites and recruit 120 employees (but the management has given no detail about the time frame and location).
Eurofound (2018), Essity, Closure in France, factsheet number 93474, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/93474.