Around 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 17, Adrien Tourres finally left the courtroom, after two hours of answering a barrage of questions from the consular judges. “I explained to the court how we planned to remedy Duralex’s difficulties. I answered all the questions, on all the difficulties.” The industrialist, who already owns two small glassworks employing 150 people in total, highlights his financial strength and the support he receives from “all French banks”. We won’t know more. “This is important because Duralex is an industrial company that needs significant financial capacity to operate,” recalls the boss of Tourres et Cie.
Complementarities with La Rochère
Its project brings together Duralex and the La Rochère glassworks, located in Haute-Saône, which the holding company Tourres et Cie bought in 2021. “Unlike Duralex, La Rochère has set up an effective commercial mechanism, which allows it to grow, with regular new products, while having iconic products. Duralex is lacking in creation, only sells products that are more than 20 years old! We need to revitalize this very beautiful company, which has a very high-quality tool.” La Rochère, which employs around a hundred permanent employees, produces luxury glasses and carafes and glass blocks used in particular on the walls of the Paris metro. La Rochère targets the high end, while Duralex is more «mass market», notes the manager, who hopes for complementarities between the two market segments. With its American subsidiary, the company founded in 1475, achieved a turnover of 15 million euros in 2023, up 50% compared to 2020 and the pre-Tourres period.
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The Tourres et Cie holding company has also owned the Waltersperger glass and crystal factory since 2018. It produces bottles for perfumery in Blangy-sur-Bresle (Seine-Maritime), in the “Glass Valley”. Like those of Duralex, the products of this company with around forty permanent employees, chaired by Stéphanie Tourres, Adrien Tourres’ wife, were exhibited at the Elysée during a Made in France exhibition. At the beginning of 2024, Waltersperger put its new factory into production, modern and larger than the previous one, a stone’s throw from the old one. “We were constrained by the old industrial site, which was… in its original state. We went from 2 million euros in turnover when we bought it to 6.3 million in 2023, and are aiming for 15 million within 5 years,” specifies the businessman. The Tourres family, glassmakers since the 19th century, had to separate in 1999 from the family business in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), taken over by the Saverglass group. The heir to this long glassmaking past is therefore gradually rebuilding a group around the trade of his ancestors. “When you see the growth of these companies on the internet, the figures are reassuring” comments a CGT staff representative.
The CGT convinced
A few days before the hearing, the industrialist met with Duralex employees for nearly three hours to present his project. The CGT representatives were convinced. “His file is very well prepared and holds up.enthuses François Dufranne, CGT representative. He speaks like a glassmaker, knows where the furnace is, wants to develop products and invest. Unfortunately, he plans to cut 49 jobs. But he has been shown that some are essential, he is ready to review his copy.” François Dufranne himself would be part of the cart. But at 57, with 30 years of teamwork out of 32 spent in the company, he estimates “to have done (one’s) part.” As he left the court, Adrien Tourres indicated that he had improved his copy by four positions, and would keep 183 employees out of 228, instead of the 179 initially planned. “We are trying to preserve employment and know-how as much as possible, but there are financial realities, argue Adrien Tourres. Duralex lost 12 million euros in 2023 on a turnover of 25 million… »
The Scop supported by all local elected officials
These job cuts nevertheless weighed heavily in the choice made by local elected officials to support the other project, that of a cooperative (Scop). At 6 p.m., the president of the Region, the mayor of Orléans and president of the agglomeration, the mayor of La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin where the factory has been present for almost 100 years, rushed into the courtroom alongside the seven or eight Duralex employees who were going to defend their project. “We are a SCOP, we go there as a group,” justifies one of them.
This second offer retains all 228 jobs. Launched by the plant manager, François Marciano, it is followed by around 60% of the employees, who each paid 500 euros to invest in the capital. As provided for in the Region’s economic intervention regulations, the President of the Region indicates, the Region will double the sums committed by the employees and will thus also invest in Duralex. The Region is also mobilizing the guarantee fund that it set up with Bpifrance to guarantee the risks of the new company to the tune of 3 million euros. Enough to reassure the banks. Who have responded, indicates François Marciano: a consortium made up in particular of the regional banks of Crédit Agricole and Caisse d’Epargne will lend 4 million euros to the Scop. Enough to buy the company (400,000 euros) and its pledged stocks, those that the banks could seize (3.5 million euros). The cooperative project has also received support from the Orléans metropolitan area, which has agreed to purchase the 14-hectare site and buildings from the Scop, which would bring between 5 and 8 million euros of fresh money to the project led by the employees.
A buyout which reassures some employees, notably the CFDT, which supports the Scop project. “The company will no longer have to pay property tax, no decontamination costs or site maintenance, underlines Suliman El Moussaoui, CFDT union delegate. With a SCOP, the employees, who know their production tool well, become the bosses. We have seen too many takeovers in the service of a parent company… » The Scop also plans to start Duralex’s commercial policy from scratch. Vincent Vallin, a former Brandt employee with a career in marketing, is ready to join it.
Heavy investments
On the contrary, the Tourres et Cie project did not convince the CFDT representative. “Mr. Tourres wants to slim down to operate with a single production line, but at least three lines are needed to revive the company. Above all, he wants to have manufactured here what he cannot do at home. But who will reap the profits? Duralex or his other companies?” Another reason to be wary of the glassmaker’s plan, according to the CFDT: “He is proposing wages at the level of the glass collective agreement, much lower than those we have today. As a result, there will be no increases for ten years!” The CGT, for its part, is wary of the Scop project, “a plan B”, according to its representatives, who do not believe in its investment capacity. Preserved until now, the atmosphere is tense between employees involved in one project or another.
One of the main challenges for the future of Duralex is the furnace, a piece of equipment worth 11 to 15 million euros, at the heart of the financial balance of a glass company. The current furnace could last until 2030, but then? Will the SCOP be able to invest to renew it? Its representatives estimate that by only changing the “refractories”, by keeping the structure, the investment would be reduced to 5.5 million euros. Adrien Tourres does not want to detail his investments, “but there will be some”, he assures. The defenders of the Scop, just like the local elected officials, believe that the Tourres holding company, of modest size, does not have much stronger shoulders than the Scop.
The few employees mobilized in front of the courthouse, as few in number as on June 5 at the same place or on June 15 in the streets of La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin, will obtain a response before June 1is August. Salaries are guaranteed at the end of July, but the cash flow will not be able to follow beyond that.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
