a thousand employees threatened and 300 customers waiting

It was a symbol of home ownership during the prosperous period of the Trente Glorieuses. More than fifty years later, the Geoxia group, owner of Maisons Phenix, is placed in compulsory liquidation. This is precisely the case for fourteen of the companies that make up the group. Only three sites manufacturing the slabs and metal frames of the houses have obtained a reprieve thanks to the intervention of the State.

To date, Phenix must complete 300 houses in France, which represents three months of work. The insurers will take over for the rest of the activities, between the recruitment of the workforce to complete the work, the assumption of additional costs and penalties for delay. Customers should therefore not be cheated.

If the liquidation is with immediate effect, the State, which refused to bail out the group, agreed to finance the last activities in the factory to allow to finish manufacturing the houses ordered. The Ministry of Economy has also rolled out the plan “big layoffs”which targets companies with more than 200 employees, to help employees find a job.

Created in 1946, Maisons Phenix developed in a rapidly growing France until the mid-1970s thanks to its model of individual housing that was quick and inexpensive to build because it was standardized. Frames of houses built in factories and delivered ready-made to construction sites.

This method of construction has shown its limits, has become too cumbersome in a sector that increasingly relies on subcontracting. The banks began to let go of the group in the 2000s. This was followed by the rise in real estate prices, the health crisis and the recent surge in the price of raw materials dealt the deathblow. Seven months of research failed to find a buyer.