“It is to break the French automotive industry”: 57 jobs threatened with a supplier of Stellantis, the concern of the employees

Another bad news for the automotive sector in Franche-Comté. The management of Flex-N-Gate, subcontractor of Stellantis based in Audincourt (Doubs), announced a voluntary departure plan of 57 people, especially in the “Research and Development” field. A decision that leaves threats to the future of society.

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In the country of Montbéliard, the historic cradle of the Peugeot company and the high place of French automotive construction, the time is for doubts and questions. While the sector is going through a complicated period, between passing through difficult electricity and hyper-competition of emerging countries practicing low prices, bad news has just touched the sector.

Thursday, June 12, 2025, employees of the Flex-N-Gate company, supplier of Stellantis based in Audincourt (Doubs), learned that their management was going to set up a voluntary departure plan concerning 57 people.

If this announcement is already likely to anximate employees, the fact that a forty of these departures affects the “research and development of the company” department “increases their concern. “As long as you have more development research, or a drastic reduction in research and development, it is that you can no longer obtain markets” saddens Christian Gaillard, CGT union delegate, at the microphone of our journalists Thierry Chauffour and Fabienne Le Moing.

Automatically there will be an impact in the coming years.

Christian Gaillard,

CGT union representative

Christian Gaillard, CGT union delegate at Flex N Gate, in Audincourt (Doubs). • © Fabienne Le Moing – France Télévisions

This atmosphere of reducing workforce and costs is unfortunately not a novelty. The last years of Flex N Gate have not been very great. Of the three French units of the company, the main one of which is that of Audincourt, the number of employees has melted by 15 % in 5 years.

A situation that is not an isolated case among automotive subcontractors, which pay the consequences of a automotive market at half mast, in a context where hyper-competition and low prices determine the choices of car manufacturers, in addition to sales of declining cars.

“We work mainly for Stellantis And we see that over the years, we have fewer and fewer vehicles produced on French territory “notes Christian Gaillard.” So for a subcontractor like us who works in “just-in-time” and who must be closest to customers, it will be complicated thereafter “.

For the unionist, this state of affairs is also due to the “European policies” concerning the automobile, and in particular the transition to electric. “It is breaking the French automotive industry because unfortunately, all electric we see what it gives. It does not work.”

But no one wants to go back. There will be consequences that may be dramatic at the automotive level over the coming years.

Christian Gaillard,

CGT union delegate at Flex N Gate

The unions will enter into negotiations with management at the end of the month in order to obtain the best possible conditions for employees on departure. As a reminder, during a previous safeguard plan, a state subsidized by the State had then made it possible to absorb part of the drop in activity.

Flex N Gate, which employs 700 people in Audincourt, manufactures bumpers and hayons for the automobile, mainly for Stellantis. It equips the Peugeot 3008 and 5008 manufactured at the Sochaux factory, the Peugeot 308 in Mulhouse, but also the Renault Trafic assembled in Sandouville (Normandy).

With Thierry Chauffour and Fabienne Le Moing

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