Placed in receivership, the automotive subcontractor and assembler of metal parts based in Doubs has been facing a drop in its turnover for three years. Explanations.
They still have customers. This is perhaps what allows them to still keep a little faith. Employees know, however, that the days of their company are numbered. SV Découpage is on the edge of a precipice. Located in Saint-Vit (Doubs), the company specializes in the cutting, stamping and assembly of parts for the automotive, electricity and tableware markets. It has been placed in receivership since January 19, 2022.
The final stage of a dark spiral. The company is experiencing great difficulties, due to a decline in its turnover since 2019. The Covid-19 crisis has gone through this, bringing in its wake an increase in the cost of raw materials and a delay in deliveries of certain materials. But the source of the decline in turnover is elsewhere. And it is rather on the side of Stellantis (ex-PSA) that we should look.
“We have lost many markets which have not been replaced”, explains to France 3 Franche-Comté Jocelyn Meyapin, secretary of the CSE and Force Ouvrière (FO) union representative. “Our biggest customer, PSA, has significantly reduced its orders.” This would even be the main cause of the company’s difficulties, confirms Nicolas Moret, CEO of SV Découpage, in the East Republican. “The Stellantis group has done us terrible harm”.
The products manufactured by SV Découpage were reaching the end of their life “without our being able to renew them due to a lack of information and visibility”, explains CEO Nicolas Moret in the daily. “The group prefers to obtain foreign labor cheaper and better than us. For him, price prevails over quality”.
The company now has 50 employees, mostly men and women in their fifties. Most are at least fifteen years old. “Employees find themselves on their own,” emphasizes Jocelyn Meyapin. “Leaders do not have the capacity to propose a continuity plan”.
The outlook for recovery looks complicated for the time being. Should it succeed in preserving all the jobs? The offer of one of the buyers was rejected by the commercial court of Besançon, confirms the trade unionist Jocelyn Meyapin. Other potential buyers are still interested, but have not submitted an offer to date.
Even worried, the employees, they continue to believe. “Interested buyers can count on the skills, commitment and perseverance of employees, who believe in the future of the company and refuse to let it die in silence”.