Type
Internal restructuring
Country
France
Region
Location of affected unit(s)
Aulnat, Toury, Erstein
Sector
Manufacturing
Manufacture Of Food And Beverage
Manufacture Of Food Products
10.81 - Manufacture of sugar

100 - 310 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
Announcement Date
17 April 2019
Employment effect (start)
1 June 2019
Foreseen end date
31 December 2019

Description

The sugar cooperative group Cristal Union has announced to its employee representatives its project to close its Bourdon sugar factory, located in Aulnat, near Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) 90 employees are concerned.

The company has also announced the upcoming and complete closure of another plant in Toury (Eure-et-Loir), which employs about 150 people. The restructuring plan also includes the closure of 50% of Erstein's packaging business in the Lower Rhine region, which will result in the loss of around 70 jobs out of the 200 at the site. As the Toury site is located not far from other Cristal Union production sites, reemployment measures to mitigate the job losses could be considered. The same applies to the Erstein plant, part of the load of which will be transferred to a site at Bazancourt (Marne). The case of the factory in Aulnat is more problematic because it collects beets from an isolated production basin in Limagne.

This is the second large reoganisation announced this year in the sugar sector after the announcement in February of plant closure by the German group Südzückers' subsidiary Saint-Louis Sucre in France (130 job cuts). These restructuring are related to a drop of prices of the beet and worldwide overcapacities. With these announcement, jobs in the agriculture sector (sugar beet growers) are also threatened.


Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2019), Cristal Union, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 97581, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/97581.