International Cookware

Sep 8, 2022

September 8, 2022 The management of Duralex, which was acquired in 2021 by the International Cookware group, owner of the Pyrex brand, announced two weeks ago to its employees that it would be forced to stop activity from November 1 for a period of four months due to rising gas and electricity prices. The approximately 250 employees will be put on short-time working a few days a week, according to provisions that will be presented to them next week. For many, it is a disappointment, knowing that the company, which is celebrating its 77th anniversary, has in the last two years returned to growth. “We have raised the bar well. We had a lot of requests. And unfortunately, it was stopped dead“, confides to Reuters Elise Fournier, 33, at the exit of the factory of La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin, in the Loiret. Duralex, whose glasses are known to all schoolchildren, appear in James Bond films or are exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, had accumulated 40 million euros in debt by the end of 2020 at the time of the bankruptcy filing. International Cookware has invested 17 million euros to put the factory back on its feet and has increased the sales force tenfold, thus enabling it to increase its turnover, explains Gwalter Teixeira, FO union representative. According to management, sales have increased by 30 to 40% since the beginning of this year. But the energy crisis is tarnishing these results. “With current prices, energy can represent, if we do not put the oven on standby, up to 40% of our turnover, which is an absolute aberration.plant CEO Jose Luis Llacuna told Reuters. VOS INDICES Resumption in 2023 A major user of gas and electricity, the company consumes 150 GW of energy per year. The bill can go up to 3 million euros in normal times. But the price of electricity has been multiplied by 22 and that of gas by 18, explains the CEO, who speaks of prices “of brutality and madness and which do not allow production to continue under normal conditions” . The company could not sign a long-term contract with an electricity or gas supplier that could have enabled it to protect itself against market volatility when it took over in January 2021, specifies the site manager, François Marciano. It had to justify one year of operation. And when it came time to sign the contracts, his advisers told management to wait for prices to come down. It was just before Russia invaded Ukraine. The company has six months of stocks, which will allow it to continue to increase its sales despite the interruption of production, specifies Jose Luis Llacuna. It should catch up later by reopening all its lines, the plant operating since the start of the energy crisis at less than 50% of its capacity. Recovery is expected in the second quarter of 2023, with management able to purchase power for that period at “high but acceptable prices” compared to those announced for November through February. For some employees, you have to be patient. “This is not the first time that Duralex has experienced an episode like this. We’re quite confident that we’ll get there.“says Guillaume Bourbon, who has worked for Duralex for eight years. With Reuters (Caroline Pailliez, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)