Michelin will cut up to 2,300 jobs in France, without forced departures

The Michelin group announced Wednesday that it would cut up to 2,300 jobs in France, without forced departures, as part of a "simplification and competitiveness plan".

The tire manufacturer aims "to improve its competitiveness of up to 5% per year" for tertiary activities and for industry, which could mean "within three years a reduction of positions of up to 2,300" , out of the 21,000 that Michelin has in France.

As many jobs created as eliminated?

The group, subject to competition from tires at discounted prices, has already cut nearly 1,500 jobs since 2017 as part of its reorganization, particularly at its historic headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, in Puy-de-Dôme, and in the United States. .

It also closed the sites of La Roche-sur-Yon, in Vendée, and Bamberg in Germany.

By 2024, "nearly 60% of planned departures would be on the basis of early retirement and the rest by accompanied voluntary departures", as part of collective contractual terminations (RCC), specifies Michelin in a press release .

From Clermont-Ferrand to Épinal via Troyes, this new reorganization concerns "all the French sites of the group," Florent Menegaux, president of the Clermont-Ferrand group, told AFP.

"Michelin is committed to recreating as many jobs as there will be deleted", he added, however, the company planning to support the regions and increase its activity in various fields in parallel with this simplification plan.

The number of departures site by site will be specified in the coming months: the group's management wishes to open negotiations "quickly" with the trade unions around a "framework agreement for a period of 3 years".

"Massive arrival of low-cost products"

For the past ten years, the group has been "faced with profound structural changes in the world tire market, marked in particular by the massive arrival of low-cost products".

It must therefore "support the strategic changes in its activities to prepare for the future. This is particularly the case in France where the vitality of its positions requires a significant strengthening of its competitiveness," he underlines.

"Michelin is not abandoning France" and "will reinvest part of the savings made in the development of new activities", underlines Florent Menegaux.

Its 15 industrial sites in France have gradually specialized in high-end, agricultural, industrial and competition tires.

At the same time, Michelin is pursuing "its strategy of locating new high value-added activities in France," such as hydrogen, 3D printing, adhesives and the recycling of plastic waste.

By 2030, Michelin wants 30% of its turnover to be generated excluding tires.