“Our bill (for gas and electricity) has gone from 3 to 13 million euros a year, or 46% of our billing.” The observation of José-Luis Llacuna, CEO of Duralex, made this Wednesday on the set of Good Business Days, is unappealable.
Suffocated by this surge in power, the famed glassworks, as planned, put its furnace on hold for five months (until April 1) and placed all of its employees on furlough to preserve its finances.
“I want a mechanism that is simple and runs quickly”
During the five months of closure, employees will be partially unemployed and will receive 95% of their net salary. Thanks to the “APLD (long-term partial activity)” system of the State, 70% of the salary will be paid by the State”, specifies the manager.
However, José-Luis Llacuna is highly critical of the support systems established by the government. “We had the resilience plan in place in February, this plan was very slow in its execution and very complicated. We are starting to receive the money, about 800,000 euros this year, it is not enough”.
Regarding the new simplified and expanded plan, the leader welcomes “the real desire to help small businesses, but I want a precise mechanism, simple to understand and to be executed as quickly as possible. The companies in difficulties today will not be in five months”. “
However, Duralex has an asset to play during this “sad” period, its stock. “We will continue selling, the commercial activity will continue, that is good news for Duralex, otherwise we would be here to talk about something else,” José-Luis Llacuna underlines.
The famous glass factories had been redeemed in extremis in January 2021, after being declared bankrupt a few months earlier by International Cookware (Pyrex), which became Maison Française du Verre earlier in the year.
Created in 1945 by Saint-Gobain, the glass factory on the outskirts of Orleans employs 250 people and in 2021 had a turnover of 23.4 million euros.
Source: BFM TV
