According to the CFDT chemistry energy Centre-Val de Loire, the management of Duralex (production of glass tableware in La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin) has announced that it wants to put its oven on standby, from 1 November, for a minimum period of five months.
It would also have been decided to pass all of the few 250 employees in partial activity.
The oven, which was renewed in 2017 after an investment of 8 million euros, uses, in fact, large quantities of gas to heat 1,300 degrees. It can never stop, at the risk of breaking. It therefore works seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
At the current price of gas, the bill is getting heavier, especially as exports are suffering from the war in Ukraine. A problem that is not unique to the company and which is likely to affect many other energy-consuming industries.
What consequences?
Unless there is angelic fresh money, this news should therefore lead to the cessation of production for five months. How well will the oven continue to heat? Contacted several times, Duralex management did not respond to our calls on Monday, August 29.
A blow as the new management, since January 2021, has invested heavily in the aging factory. José-Luis Llacuna, the CEOdeclared, during the acquisition of Duralex at the bar of the commercial court: “Today, only two out of five lines are working. We will take stock of the corrective measures to be taken to move from less than 50% of capacities, today, at 75% in 2024. In order to regain an economic balance as quickly as possible, by 2024. We are going to invest 12 million euros from the first year, in maintenance, productivity and safety.”
Still according to the CFDT, an inter-union meeting is scheduled for September 14.
Duralex has been acquired, in January 2021by International Cookware, parent company of Pyrex, which has since become the French glass house.
Carole Tribout