Renault: the fate of the Poitou Alu Foundry, still without a buyer, soon to be fixed

No offer has been submitted for the takeover of the Fonderie du Poitou “Alu”, an automotive subcontractor with 300 employees in Vienne, which is getting ever closer to compulsory liquidation, AFP learned on Monday March 28. from union sources. “This Monday at 5:00 p.m., deadline set by the Paris Commercial Court, no buyer has come forward,” Jean-Philippe Juin, CGT union representative and spokesperson for the CGT intersyndicale, told AFP. /CFE-CGC. The fate of the Ingrandes-sur-Vienne site, north of Châtellerault, which manufactures aluminum cylinder heads essential to its only customer, Renault, will be decided on Wednesday during a meeting between the judicial administrators, the State, the manufacturer and unions.

“It can go very quickly. If a motion for liquidation is filed by the administrators, the court will be obliged to organize a hearing within three weeks,” said June. A strike by factory workers is also scheduled for Wednesday. Two companies, the Italian group RJ SRL, a machine manufacturer in the heavy goods market, and the Orleans foundry Sifa Technologies have expressed their interest, but this remains “very weak”, according to the union representative. A visit is scheduled next week to present the site.

Renault pledges to support plant volumes

“We try to keep hope as long as the factory is not closed”, assured Mr. June, who also regretted that “the question of the reindustrialization of France” is not at the heart of the debates of the presidential election. The subcontractor, in receivership, had obtained two reprieves from the court last October and January to find a buyer, each time without success. For its part, the Renault group has undertaken in writing to support the volumes of the factory until February 2023, if no buyer appears, and until 2025 in the event of a takeover. A subsidiary of the Alvance group of the Indo-Briton Sanjeev Gupta, Fonderie du Poitou Alu has been in difficulty for several years. The adjoining Fonderie du Poitou Fonte factory, which produced diesel crankcases for Renault, closed its doors this summer.