Marelli will close two factories in Orne and Yonne, nearly 300 employees will lose their jobs

The automobile subcontractor Marelli (formerly Magneti-Marelli) announced on Wednesday October 4 the closure of two of its French factories, in Argentan (Orne) and Saint-Julien-du-Sault (Yonne), report France Bleu Normandie and France Blue Auxerre.

In total, nearly 300 employees will lose their jobs. According to information from France Bleu Normandie, 167 employees work at the Argentan factory. This Marelli site has existed since 1970 in Argentan. 125 employees are affected by the closure of the site in Yonne.

A relocation to Slovakia

For the Argentan factory, the job protection plan (PSE) was announced Wednesday morning and will be studied by the CSE from October 12. The group had initially said that it would maintain activity at the site until the end of 2023. The Normandy factory had until now produced “butterfly bodies”, a part located between the car’s air filter and its engine. . According to the inter-union association, joined by France Bleu, the factory’s turnover was good, Marelli Argentan was profitable in 2022 and should be profitable at the end of 2023. Management indicated to its employees that it was a question of a project to relocate production to Slovakia.

Marelli employees in Argentan went on strike, indicates France Bleu Normandie, while management received the different teams on Wednesday to announce this news. According to the unions cited by France Bleu, the Argentan site would be more profitable than that of Kechnec, the Slovak town where production must be relocated.

Concerning the Saint-Julien-du-Sault factory, Marelli explained that “over the last two years the factory has only worked at 30% of its capacity”, “reports a significant operating loss of more than 24 million euros between 2018 and 2022” and judged that the “market forecasts are negative for the coming years”.