Nine months after receiving a $6 million grant from Quebec, the Quebec charging network operator and terminal manufacturer FLO is temporarily laying off 8% of its workforce in Shawinigan, confirmed to Newspaper the company, Thursday afternoon.
“These are temporary layoffs and our intention is to recall impacted employees within the next six months or sooner,” Newspaper Maude Blouin, spokesperson for FLO.
The announcement was made yesterday morning to employees of the Mauricie factory.
These job cuts, in the run-up to Christmas, come just a few months after the award of a $6 million grant to FLO for a $23.8 million project for new generation high-power terminals .
“Out of respect for our affected colleagues and out of concern for confidentiality, we are not disclosing the total number. However, I can tell you that this is less than 8% of our workforce,” added the FLO spokesperson.
According to FLO, these “difficult decisions” were necessary for the company to be profitable. The company remains convinced that the electric vehicle charging industry is set to grow in the coming years.
For Daniel Breton, CEO of Electric Mobility Canada (MEC), there is no reason to worry since the acceleration in electric sales continues.
“FLO has a reputation for being extremely reliable. Its new generation of terminals will continue to make them particularly competitive,” analyzed the specialist in the electrical industry in Quebec.
Dozens of employees affected
Some 500 people work for FLO, around forty people are affected.
Beginning of November, The newspaper reported that clouds were looming on the horizon over the battery sector, while investments of $16 billion from Ford were on hold and a $7 billion project from Honda and General Motors (GM) was aborted.
For his part, Sylvain M. Audette, associate member of the Research Chair in Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal, believed that “if the electric vehicle production market collapsed, that would be worrying.”