Rescue operation for Carelide, the only French manufacturer of infusion bags. In the name of health sovereignty, the State, the Hauts-de-France region and the Lille metropolis announced financial support for the takeover offer from the northern company, examined by the courts on Friday.
The only offer for this company in difficulty had been presented in extremis in mid-January by the French pharmaceutical companies Aguettant and the Delpharm group. The Commercial Court of Lille Métropole must decide during the day on this operation, after a hearing in the morning, according to a source close to the file.
If validated, the recovery provides for only nine job cuts, out of some four hundred, according to several union officials. The state will “make a loan of 20 million euros and [accorder] a grant of five million” to support the buyers, announced the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure on the antenna of Europe 1.
“If we want to ensure our industrial sovereignty, we need big manufacturers. We have one, who is ready to take Carelide. The State, suddenly, will accompany it “highlighted the minister, stressing that the buyer was going to “put 40” million. Carelide mainly supplies hospitals, a market in which it faces competition from a German group and the American Baxter.
The company had been placed in receivership on October 24 because of a “cash crunch”, estimated for January February at nearly 10 million euros, had indicated in November the president of the commercial court Eric Feldmann. The Hauts-de-France region and the European metropolis of Lille announced on Friday that they will submit to the votes of their respective assemblies a subsidy of 1 million euros each to safeguard this “strategic business” based in the outskirts of Lille.
“Good news” for the unions, which remain “vigilant”
Several dozen employees were gathered on Friday morning at the Lille Métropole commercial court. Initially providing for the takeover of at least three hundred employees out of the approximately four hundred that the company had, the candidates for the takeover should ultimately retain 383, or nine job cuts, several union officials on the spot said.
Meryam Djidel, CGT union representative, welcomed a ” good news “ after the ministerial announcement. “The challenge is to remain vigilant so that there are no other layoffs later”. “The State has taken the measure of the challenge”estimated Daniel Moreia, SOUTH delegate. “We are the only ones to make infusion bags and liquid paracetamol in France, and we have seen, with the shortages of paracetamol and antibiotics made in China, the importance of keeping certain productions in France”he pointed out.
Mr. Lescure also pointed out that Carelide was “one of the last three” companies to produce infusion bags in Europe. “We had a challenge, the hospitals told us, of the ability to deliver, and it is the only company today that makes paracetamol infusion bags, so we really needed it”he concluded.
In October 2020, in the midst of a health crisis, the government granted Carelide aid of 5 million euros – out of a total investment of 12.5 million euros in the company – to enable it to increase its capacity to production. The new boost was announced on the day of a meeting in Bercy of health industrialists, to which the State intends to submit a new ” doctrine “ to promote employment in France, in this sector.
A subcontractor in the manufacture of drugs, Delpharm posted an annual turnover of 1 billion euros in June 2022. The Boulogne-Billancourt group has 6,000 employees and seventeen factories, including eleven in France. Based in Lyon, Aguettant is a specialist in injectable products used in hospitals which employs 500 employees and achieved, in 2022, a turnover of 160 million euros.