The management of the Brodard et Taupin book printing plant in La Flèche (Sarthe) is considering a reorganisation project that would involve the dismissal of three employees, the daily reveals West France . A project that is going badly among the employees of the company Brodard et Taupin employs nearly 120 people who called for a walkout on Friday, September 4, 2020, says the daily, which quotes an anonymous source within the printing works.
Together with Firmin Didot in Mesnil-sur-l'Estrée (Eure) and Bussière in Saint-Amand-Montrond (Cher), Brodard et Taupin is one of the three French printing plants of the CPI Group, which has a total of 16 printing plants in Europe. The Firmin-Didot printing works would also be affected by this reorganisation project.
Consequences of the health crisis
Still according to West France The proposed reorganisation would have been presented to the company's employees on Monday 7 September. According to the management, it would be the consequence of the drop in activity linked to the health crisis.
During containment, the Brodard et Taupin printing plant had to close for a month, from mid-March to mid-April, due to a drop in orders. On recovery, the printer again had a full order book thanks to the release before the summer of high-circulation books by successful authors, while pointing out that it had little visibility over the following months.
At the beginning of the year, Brodard et Taupin invested in two new palletizing robots (transfer of book bundles under film on pallets) for a total amount of 250?000 euros. An investment that makes it possible to automate a difficult handling task while reducing production costs.
As a reminder, the CPI Group was bought by the Dutch printing and press group Circle Media Group in 2018 and sold a year later to the private wealth management fund of the entrepreneur and investor, Richard Hughes, and his family (RHWO).
