The announcement was made in early December, it is now effective. The Cofigeo group, at the head of several food brands such as William Saurin, Zapetti or Garbit, closed this Monday, January 2, four of these main factories for a month. The reason: the “spectacular rise in its energy costs”, multiplied by ten since the beginning of the year, according to the group.
The four closed factories are located in Pouilly-sur-Serre (Aisne), Capdenac (Aveyron), Saint-Thibault des Vignes (Seine-et-Marne) and Camaret-sur-Aigues (Vaucluse). These sites represent 80% of the group’s production, but above all leave 800 employees on technical unemployment out of the 1,200 in the group.
Asked by Franceinfo, Jocelyn Prophet, CFDT delegate of the group, detailed the drop in income that this represents for the people concerned: “On a low salary, it represents a loss of 170 euros for the month of January”. The employees, however, managed to “limit the breakage”. Initially, management was counting on a remuneration equivalent to “70% of salaries”, reported Frédéric Gaffet, CGT representative in our columns this Sunday. “We obtained 77% of the gross with a 2.5% increase in November”, a lesser evil.
“I don’t see how we can go back to work”
An agreement has been signed between the company and the employees to ratify the closure of the sites in January, but the fear of the future is very present: “If this energy crisis continues, I do not see how in February, we can go back to work, ”recognized Jocelyn Prophet.
“With an annual bill for energy going from 4 to 40 million euros, this decision has become inevitable to protect our company and its employees”, justified in December the president of Cofigeo, Mathieu Thomazeau. Cofigeo does not know when it will resume its activity, but it hopes “as soon as possible”.
Cofigeo is not an isolated case: across the country, several companies faced with an increase in gas and electricity prices have announced their closure, their time to let winter pass.