Furniture manufacturer Demeyere requests placement in receivership

The northern manufacturer of kit furniture Demeyere, battered by the Covid-19 crisis and the rise in the cost of raw materials, must request Thursday its placement in receivership, announced its management on Wednesday. If the obtaining at the beginning of the summer of a loan guaranteed by the State of 30 million euros had reduced the specter of a social plan, the company was preparing on Tuesday to seek the protection of the court of commerce of Lille “the time to find the best possible recovery solutions to consider a recovery plan”, explained the management in a press release. She thus hopes to be able to “conquer new commercial outlets, adapt product ranges to new customer expectations, develop e-commerce and digitalisation”.

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The company, which employs more than 850 people in France for a turnover of 105 million euros in 2020, was already encountering difficulties before the Covid-19 epidemic, but the health crisis has aggravated them, with a 30% drop in activity according to management. The press release cites among the other causes of its situation the difficulties since 2019 of its major customer Conforama, “the global shortage of chipboard in 2021” and “the recent surge in the costs of raw materials and transport (+ 170% for wood , +50% for aluminium, etc.). If "certain price increases, in particular transport" could be absorbed by the production "Made in France", this was not enough to raise the bar, underlines the management.

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Based in Pérenchies (Nord), Demeyere, which claims more than 90% of manufacturing in France, has other sites in the North, warehouses and factories, as well as a factory in Charente and one in Vietnam. The company is moving "perhaps towards a social plan, but perhaps not at all" told AFP Olivier Bourdier, CGT union representative of the Charente site of Nersac. “Two pension funds and three industrialists would be interested, but for the time being these are only words, we do not know their names”, he added. On Wednesday morning, all the French sites went on strike simultaneously after management announced the non-payment of wages for November and the 13th month, causing management to back down on these points, according to the trade unionist, who points to a lack of anticipation on his part.