ReportingThe family and centenary French group, which employs 750 employees, has a few months to try to find a buyer.
It is a veritable ballet of forklifts, which whirl in the middle of the 45,000 square meters of the Demeyere kit furniture manufacturing plant, in Pérenchies, in the North. The day after the announcement, Thursday, December 2, by the Commercial Court of Lille, of the placement in receivership of this century-old family business, the employees were worried, but continue to produce tables, furniture, cabinets or bedrooms for their clients, mainly Conforama, But and Leroy Merlin. “It’s hard, but we have a real attachment to this company, confides Arnaud Bossard, foreman and employee of the plant for thirty-three years. There is a family spirit anchored in these walls. “
Demeyere Group has 750 qualified employees on five production sites: four in the North (640 employees) and a production plant in Nersac, Charente (110 employees). Before the coronavirus crisis, nearly 3.6 million pieces of furniture were sold each year across 34 countries. A fine example of “made in France”, the company was created by Lucien Demeyere, a cabinetmaker, in 1909, in the Lille metropolis. In 1960, his son Pierre enabled the company to become the forerunner in the manufacture of kit furniture. “The first difficulties arose in 2017 with Conforama, a major customer of the group”, says the new general manager, Jean-Marc Bailleux, who arrived on July 5.
To the abrupt stoppage of activity, due to the health crisis, was added the soaring prices of raw materials and transport costs.
In 2019, Conforama, in the turmoil, cut 1,900 jobs. But, for the Demeyere unions, the group’s current delicate financial situation started in 2012. “For ten years, we have not made a profit, explain Bernard Vereecke, CFE-CGC delegate and Mickaël Dhooge, FO delegate. In 2012, the two Demeyere brothers scrambled around the strategy. “
Falling turnover
Bernard Demeyere, emblematic boss of the group for thirty-one years, had ceded, at 65, his place to his younger brother Frédéric. After a first plan to safeguard employment (PSE), it launched the new strategy of ” fast furniture “, with an emphasis on responsiveness, quality, design, innovation and customer service. “And then, we changed our strategy again in 2019, after a new social plan, and a transition manager was appointed, just before the health crisis”, declare, with a sigh, the union representatives. “It was he who put the second foot of the company in the precipice, denounces Thierry Delporte, CFDT delegate. We have never had so much burnout than at that time. “
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