Home » News » A threat of closure hangs over the Maflow Chartres plant, a Renault and PSA subcontractor

A threat of closure hangs over the Maflow Chartres plant, a Renault and PSA subcontractor

It is perhaps, they fear, the last fight of the 97 employees of the Maflow Chartres factory, to avoid a closure of the site. The withdrawal in 2022 of PSA and Renault, the only two customers of this automotive subcontractor, specializing in aluminum tubes for car air conditioners, threatens the sustainability of the site and its jobs, fears Eric Jarry, FO delegate within the business. According to the union representative, the first signs of a withdrawal from these two partners appeared at the beginning of 2021.

In the week of October 4 to 10, 2021, union representatives met with Maflow management, they said, who would have confirmed to them the intentions of the two French manufacturers to entrust the contracts honored by Maflow to other service providers.

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On Monday, October 11, almost all the staff of the only French production unit of the Maflow Boryszew group, European leader in the piping, metal fittings and rubber hoses sector, gathered in front of the Eure prefecture. et-Loir, in Chartres. A delegation was received by the prefect of Eure-et-Loir, Françoise Souliman.

Who are the 97 employees of the Maflow factory in Chartres?

The site currently has 97 employees, mainly production operators who manufacture aluminum tubes, as well as administrative staff.

What threats weigh on the sustainability of the site?

The Maflow Chartres plant works for two giants of the automotive industry, PSA and Renault, whose orders each represent around 50% of the site’s activity for each of these customers.

PSA’s withdrawal …

According to Eric Jarry, PSA initially decided to entrust the production of parts for its air conditioners to another French subcontractor, whose production units are located in the countries of Eastern Europe, and whose production shots would be “weaker”.

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“Three to four years ago, the former leaders of the group increased the price of parts produced in Chartres by 15%. To preserve the site, the management of Maflow proposed to return to the initial price”. Without success, according to the union representative: “I think that PSA no longer wants to produce in France.” Also according to Eric Jarry, the contract between Maflow and PSA would end in February 2022.

… Then from Renault

Still according to the FO delegate, the withdrawal of PSA would have precipitated that of Renault, manufacturer with which Maflow renews its contracts according to the new engines and the new production phases of the different models: “Renault refuses to entrust us with its new projects. after management, they don’t want to work with subcontractors who only work with one client. ” According to FO, the activity carried out in Chartres would be relocated to Hungary or Morocco, with there too, advances the union, savings in terms of production costs.

The current contracts which bind Renault to Maflow run until the end of the year 2022. If the site is found without any activity by then, its disappearance and the elimination of 97 jobs seem inevitable.

What is the strategy of the unions to avoid the closure of the site and to preserve jobs?

By meeting the prefect of Eure-et-Loir, the union representatives hope to use the only lever they have to influence or delay the decision of the two French manufacturers: an intervention by the State, shareholder of Renault (15% of the capital) , whose interests are also represented on the Board of Directors of PSA, via the Public Investment Bank (12.23% of the capital).

On the State services side, the Prefect of Eure-et-Loir undertakes to report the situation of Maflow to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance and to offer support to the production unit in order to avoid job losses. The prefect of Eure-et-Loir should also meet the boss of the group Maflow Boryszew, who is due to travel to Chartres at the end of the month.

Why has this flagship of automotive subcontracting increased from 1,200 employees to around a hundred in twenty years?

At the start of the 2000s, the Chartres site still belonged to the Manuli group, before it sold its automotive branch to Maflow in 2003. 1,200 employees then worked on the Chartres site.

Several production transfers reduce its wage bill in waves. In 2006, while the site, under Maflow’s bosom, still had 420 employees, the underlying trend in the French automotive sector towards offshoring led to a new social plan, in two phases. The payroll goes from 420 to 217 employees.

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In 2009, the subcontractor from Chartres, exhausted by the crisis in the automotive sector, was placed in receivership. Taken over in 2010 by the Polish group Boryszew, the site faces several job protection plans which reduce its workforce to below one hundred employees.

Sebastien couratin

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