The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Manufacturing Manufacture Of Food And Beverage Manufacture Of Food Products 10.81 - Manufacture of sugar
130 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
14 February 2019
Employment effect (start)
1 October 2019
Foreseen end date
31 July 2020
Description
Saint-Louis Sucre, a subsidiary of the German group Südzucker, has announced the closure of two of its four sugar factories in France from 2020, as well as a major reorganisation with 130 job cuts. The sites in Cagny (Calvados), Eppeville (Somme) and Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) will be affected. The Cagny plant, which employs 85 people, will cease sugar production in favour of sugar storage, molasses and the production of animal feed from molasses, which would result in 77 job cuts. In Eppeville, 122 of the 132 employees will be reassigned to the two plants in Roye (Somme), about 20 kilometres away. The other 10 would store sugar, syrup and molasses and dehydrate pulp. In Marseille, a packaging plant, the 58 employees will be reduced to five for a refocusing of the activity on liquid sugar production.
This reorganisation is linked to the liberalisation of the European market since October 2017 which saw the abolition of quotas, global overproduction and an unprecedented fall in prices on the world and European markets, according to Saint-Louis Sucre. The union FO denounces Südzucker's decision, which 'has just announced that it will stop producing 700,000 tonnes of sugar per year, but it is France that is concentrating most of the efforts with 450,000 tonnes'. For the union the shareholder is giving preference to its factories in Germany. Saint-Louis Sucre employs 770 people in France and works with 4,733 sugar beet growers.
Eurofound (2019), Saint Louis Sucre, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 96703, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/96703.
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