The 500 Castelroussian employees of the GMD group, an automotive subcontractor, are worried about the future. The decline of the auto sector and the decline in activity at the Indre sites make them fear the worst. And an upcoming takeover of the group should not help the situation.
The essentials of the day: our exclusive selection
Every day, our editorial team reserves the best regional news for you. A selection just for you, to stay in touch with your regions.
France Télévisions uses your email address to send you the newsletter “Today’s essentials: our exclusive selection”. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Our privacy policy
Highly anticipated, the meeting proved frustrating for the employees of the GMD group. “Not a word about the sustainability of sites and jobs in France… If Montyon wanted to keep all the sites in France, they would have been proud to announce it to us!”
On October 30, union representatives from the GMD group met with the leaders of the investment fund Montyon Capital. The latter showed interest in buying the automotive subcontracting group, which employs nearly 2,000 employees in France, including 500 on the Châteauroux site alone (straddling Le Poiçonnet), in Indre.
The 500 employees are spread across three sites and two brands. 130 depend on the Eurocast foundry, the others are at Eurostyle Systems, specialized in plastics processing. 200 work in the design office, and 170 in the factory producing plastic parts for car interiors from Renault and Stellantis (notably Peugeot and Citroën).
Except GMD is doing badly. This summer, the group announced a drop in turnover for Eurostyles Châteauroux, falling from 30 to 25 million euros in one year. The closure in early 2024 of the Renault factory in Flins (in western Paris) “penalized the factory”, explains Laurent Joly, CGT Eurostyle Systems union delegate. “We were assembling door panels for the Clio two years ago, for the Nissan Micra and the Zoé in 2023… Production fell by 30%” in Châteauroux.
On the design office side, it’s not much better. “For 18 months, Stellantis has no longer awarded us projects, and Renault has only assigned us really minimal projects,” he regrets. Obviously, “we have big fears for activity in 2025”.
Obviously, the situation is not new for the French automobile industry, which is “in decline”. GMD employees in Châteauroux witnessed, in June 2024, the judicial liquidation of their neighbors Impériales Wheels (formerly Alvance), another automotive subcontractor in turmoil for several years. And, according to Fiev, the professional union of automotive equipment manufacturers, 70,000 jobs could disappear within the sector in France by 2030.
At the same time, “Stellantis and Renault are creating international sites, and we are following them.” GMD thus went from 4,700 French jobs in 2011 to 1,825 at the end of 2023, and 3,400 outside France. “Since 2009, they have created more than ten international sites.”
The trade unionist denounces relocations, to the detriment of jobs in France:
This is the basis of capitalism: reaping even more profits. It’s always the same goal.
Laurent Joly, CGT Eurostyle Systems union representative
“We will not recall the profits of Stellantis”, which amount to 18.6 billion euros in 2023, he jokes. An increase of 11%.
It is in this very difficult context that GMD should be resumed. Two offers were submitted, by the Montyon fund of billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin, and by the Chinese group Sanarco. The discussions are most advanced with the first, who has not “said much about the sustainability of sites and jobs”, regrets Laurent Joly.
This Friday, November 8, the GMD group inter-union will meet in Montreuil, in Seine-Saint-Denis, to “take stock” and “talk about the future”. Because, within the company, no employee is fooled, and everyone is “worried about their jobs”. The unions are therefore already considering “what we are going to put in place to put pressure on Montyon”. And, “unfortunately, the only way to make yourself heard is to stop the sites,” warns Laurent Joly.
Contacted by France 3, the management of the GMD group did not wish to comment, and will not communicate before having informed its employees of the continuation of the operations linked to the future takeover.
Every day, receive news from your region by newsletter.
Ignore
register
Every day, receive news from your region by newsletter.
France Télévisions uses your email address to send you the newsletter for your region. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of these newsletters. Our privacy policy