The coronavirus crisis has precipitated several French companies, some of which were already in difficulty like Renault, into bankruptcies or restructuring with serious consequences for employment.
Automobile
The automaker Renault, in financial difficulty, announced Friday the loss of about 15,000 jobs worldwide, including 4,600 in France, as part of a savings plan of more than 2 billion euros over three years. Four French sites should be affected, under conditions which remain partially to be defined: Caudan (Morbihan), Dieppe (Seine-Maritime), Maubeuge (North) and Choisy-le-Roi (Val-de-Marne). Only the latter site will be closed by 2022, said the manufacturer. The project also includes stopping automobile production in Flins (Yvelines), at the end of the Zoe model after 2024.
Furnishings
The furniture brand Alinéa, based in Aubagne (Bouches-du-Rhône) and which employs nearly 2,000 employees, declared that it had ceased payment on May 6 and was placed on receivership on 13.
Audio-visual
Anticipating a collapse in advertising revenue, NextRadioTV, the parent company of BFMTV and RMC, announced on May 19 a “post-Covid transformation and reconquest plan” which plans to reduce the workforce and the wing in sport and entertainment. NextRadioTV, which employs more than 1,600 people, intends to halve the use of intermittent workers, freelancers and consultants and "pool support functions".
Penalized by the cessation of major sports competitions during the epidemic, the sports news channel RMC Sport News (Altice group) will stop definitively on June 2.
Radio France, which was negotiating a voluntary departure plan, will suspend negotiations and adjust it before the start of the school year to take into account the consequences of the health crisis. The management had presented a year ago a plan providing 60 million euros in savings and the elimination of more than 250 positions, generating the longest strike in the history of the group.
Shoes and clothing
The shoe and clothing brand La Halle (Vivarte, 5,391 employees in France), has been in the safeguarding procedure since April 21. Seven candidates for the takeover came forward, which would take up only 60% of the workforce, according to its CEO.
The shoe brand of the Spartoo André group (600 employees) went into receivership in early April after having to close its stores and lost almost 4 million euros in two weeks.
The Commercial Court of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) ordered on May 15 the receivership of Naf Naf (1,170 employees), bought two years ago from Vivarte by a consortium led by the Chinese group La Chapelle. Two takeover offers will be studied in early June.
Orchestra-Prémaman (children's articles, 2,900 employees), under safeguard procedure since September 2019, has been in receivership since late April.
On May 26, the Camaïeu ready-to-wear company (3,900 employees, 634 stores) went into receivership with a six-month observation period by the Lille Commercial Court. The government says it is looking for a buyer.
Hobbies
Disneyland Paris said in early April to end the contracts of 350 intermittent workers and artists and technicians, recruited in early 2020. The amusement park, closed to the public since March 16, then said it wanted them to benefit from partial unemployment.
Economy
Renault to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide but "without layoffs"
Economy
"It keeps me busy from morning to night" ... The government is looking for a buyer in Camaïeu, says Bruno Le Maire
- Coronavirus
- Company
- Bankruptcy
- Abolition of posts
- Renault
- Economy