After having already cut 1,500 jobs since 2017, the group has announced a “simplification and competitiveness plan”, which should not, however, include forced departures.
Le Monde
It is more than 10% of its French workforce that Michelin intends to see leave over the next three years. The group announced , Wednesday, January 6, 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 by 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.
The group, subject to competition from tires at broken prices, has already cut nearly 1,500 jobs since 2017 as part of its reorganization, particularly at its historic headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) and in the United States. It also closed the sites of La Roche-sur-Yon (Vendée) and Bamberg in Germany.
By 2024, “nearly 60% of planned departures would be based on early departures from retirement and the rest by accompanied voluntary departures “, within the framework of collective contractual breaks, Michelin said in a press release.
All the French sites concerned
From Clermont-Ferrand to Epinal via Troyes, this new reorganization concerns “all the French sites of the group”, specified to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Florent Menegaux, the president of the Clermont group. “Michelin is committed to recreating as many jobs as there will be deleted”, he added, however, the company planning to support the territories 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 management of The group wishes to open negotiations “quickly” with the trade unions around a “framework agreement for a period of 3 years”.
The group has “been confronted for the past ten years with profound structural transformations of the world tire market, marked in particular by the massive arrival of low-cost products “. It therefore considers that it must “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 fifteen industrial sites in France have gradually specialized in high-end, agricultural, industrial, or competition tires. At the same time, Michelin says it is pursuing “its strategy of locating new high value-added activities in France,” such as hydrogen, 3D printing, adhesives or the recycling of plastic waste. By 2030, Michelin wants 30% of its turnover to be generated excluding tires.