Posted on Sep 16, 2020 at 11:19 amUpdated Sep 16, 2020 at 11:51 am
Bridgetone wants to close its Béthune factory, but the company will find the government and Xavier Bertrand on its way. In a press release published this Wednesday morning, the Japanese manufacturer Bridgestone said “consider the total and permanent cessation of activity” of its northern site, which employs 863 employees. An announcement that immediately prompted a joint response of rare virulence from the government and the President of Hauts-de-France.
The Japanese group says it is “fully aware of the social consequences of such a project”. It “undertakes to implement all the necessary means to define a support plan adapted to each employee”, notably evoking early retirement measures, internal reclassification opportunities within other activities of Bridgestone France (commercial subsidiary and distribution network), and external reclassification aid. Management also promises that it will “actively seek a buyer for the site”.
“The only option”
For Laurent Dartoux, European boss of Bridgestone, “this project is not indicative of the employees’ commitment, nor of their many years of work to provide high quality products to our customers. It is the direct consequence of a change in the market that Bridgestone has to face. ”
According to the company, closing the Béthune site is “the only option which would allow the competitiveness of Bridgestone’s operations in Europe”. Like Michelin , the Japanese group suffers from competition from low-cost Chinese brands, whose market share rose from 6% to 18% between 2000 and 2018, says the group.
This situation places the market in a situation of chronic overproduction and drives prices down on segments of tires smaller than 18 inches in diameter, the type of tires produced at Béthune. With the consequence of considerable damage to employment in Europe: Michelin announced a little less than a year ago the closure of its La-Roche-sur-Yon site, and the German Continental announced on Tuesday that it intended to do the same with its site in Aix-la-Chapelle, which has some 1,800 employees.
“The least efficient factory in Europe”
In this ultra-competitive context, the northern plant is “the least efficient among all European factories of Bridgestone”, assures the Japanese group. The measures taken to straighten the fire were unsuccessful, assures the group.
“For several years, Bridgestone has recorded losses on the tires produced in Béthune and the current market dynamics do not, as it stands, suggest any improvement in the situation,” leading management to consider closing the site in the second quarter of 2021 .
Common front on the government side
This scenario is vigorously contested by the government and by Xavier Bertrand, who issued in the wake of a joint statement (rare when the president of the region is not of the same political color as the executive) to “affirm their total disagreement facing this announcement ”, of which“ they contest the brutality, the relevance and the foundations ”.
According to the State and Hauts-de-France, it is Bridgestone which is responsible for the situation: the group “has largely divested the Béthune plant for many years, in favor of its other European sites, automatically resulting in a lack of competitiveness, and that in addition it has allocated to the site low-margin products whose market is in continuous decline. “
The French public authorities therefore ask the company “to open up and analyze in detail all the alternative scenarios to the closure of the site and taking into account the possibilities offered by the national and regional recovery plans. “Objective,” the maintenance of industrial employment at the Béthune site. The arm wrestling game is on.