History repeats itself for Duralex. This Tuesday, April 16, the management of the famous glassworks of La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin (Loiret), near Orléans, informed the employees that it was going to request the company's receivership from the Court of Orléans, three years after taking charge, at the helm of this same jurisdiction.
Management explains that it had no other choice but to make this decision and assures that “the objective is to look for a buyer” and “find the best solution for the company”.
“It’s always the same music”
For the 230 employees of Duralex, renowned worldwide for its ultra-resistant canteen glasses, this is a hard blow, especially since three weeks earlier, management had promised them new projects. “We suffered crisis after crisis, Covid, Ukraine, energy, inflation. The State helped us but it was not enough. We no longer have the markets,” says François Dufranne, CGT trade unionist elected to the CSE.
For him, this decision has an air of déjà vu. For more than thirty years in the company, he has experienced two judicial liquidations in the last fifteen years, the first in 2008, and the second in 2020, just before the glassworks was saved, at the last minute, by its current owner, the house French glass company, which also owns Pyrex in Châteauroux (Indre). “It’s always the same music, with different actors. But at least this time, they didn't wait to go to court, that's something, they didn't let the debts accumulate,” he adds, fatalistically.
This decision comes almost to the day after the restart of Duralex, a year ago. Its oven had been restarted in the presence of the Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, after five months of shutdown. Asphyxiated by the explosion in energy costs, the company had to suspend production and obtained a state loan of 15 million euros to overcome the crisis.
Faced with these new difficulties, will the State once again come to the aid of Duralex? In a press release, the Minister of Industry indicates that he “will do everything possible to bring about recovery solutions”, and asks stakeholders to mobilize alongside him.
The call was heard by the region and the metropolis of Orléans, which promised to commit to finding a solution capable of sustaining employment and activity.
The court will rule on management's request on April 24.