(Montreal) Quebec commercial semi-trailer manufacturer Manac could have to lay off up to 200 employees in the coming months due to a slowdown in the industry.
This was indicated by the company’s president and CEO on the sidelines of an announcement concerning loan financing totaling $170 million. This amount should allow Manac to expand and modernize its plant established since 1967 in Saint-Georges, in Beauce.
Charles Dutil told The Canadian Press that the company sent a notice of potential layoffs a few weeks ago.
PHOTO ARCHIVES THE SUN
Manac President and CEO Charles Dutil
“Our employees have been informed. We believe that the number of layoffs will not reach 200,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Dutil explained that the transportation equipment industry is facing a slowdown in North America.
“Production is going to be significantly lower in the second half of 2024 than we’ve seen in the last few years. Unfortunately, you can’t have more production hours than what’s required,” he said.
Possible layoffs could occur by late summer or early fall. They would be distributed among different factories of the company.
Their number could be lower if certain submissions are released or if certain orders come in more quickly than anticipated, said Mr. Dutil.
At the start of the year, Manac also indicated the possibility of laying off 45 people. About a dozen people were ultimately laid off before being called back to work a few weeks later, the CEO said.
The financing, announced Thursday, was obtained from Investissement Québec, BDC and Desjardins. It should help “catalyze the company’s growth strategy,” including work at its Saint-Georges plant and the deployment of new sales and service centers in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada.
Asked whether this financing could help avoid layoffs, Mr. Dutil replied that these are “two completely independent situations in the life of the company.”
The financing is linked to the modernization and expansion project of the Saint-Georges plant that was planned over the last 18 to 24 months, and is currently in execution for at least two years, said Mr. Dutil.
“Throughout this period of project completion, there is the economic cycle” which leads to a slowdown, he added.
In a press release, Mr. Dutil indicates that the amounts obtained will make it possible to adapt the St-Georges factory “to the evolution of the dimensions of semi-trailers permitted by the standards”. They must also make it possible to “improve productivity through the integration of innovative technologies and broaden the reach of the company’s offering through the establishment of new sales and service centers in Quebec and Canada.”
Having participated in the announcement on Thursday, the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, argued that with its “new state-of-the-art facilities, the company is giving itself the means to remain the leader in Canada in its field.”
The financing includes a refinancing operation of up to $30 million. Loans of $40 million through the ESSOR program, administered by Investissement Québec as agent of the government, and $30 million directly from Investissement Québec’s own funds are granted to Manac.
Desjardins and BDC each grant loans of 50 million.
Manac builds its trailers in three factories in Quebec, one in British Columbia and another in Missouri.