At the beginning of November, Easyflyer employees learned of the closure of their production site in Orléans, Loiret. The French inline printing plant created in 2009 and sold to the American group Cimpress in 2015 will close on 18 December for economic reasons. All production employees, i.e. 27 people, as well as eight out of 36 administrative staff will be made redundant.
Revenues would have been down 40 percent quarter over quarter due to the covid-19 pandemic, site manager Frank Bertenburg said in an e-mail to employees. "As a result, we are forced to conclude that the Cimpress Group is in overcapacity and can no longer cope. An improvement of the situation is not yet in sight." he continued.
"All our production volume goes to Pixartprinting in Italy, says one employee. We were shut down for six months, from March to the end of August. And since we resumed in September, we have to send to Italy the references that they don't have... Management assured us at the time that there were no plans to transfer production under consideration..."
Frank Bertenburg, who confirms the closure of the Orléans printing plant by the end of December for "cutting costs" assures us that "Printing orders will be transferred to other plants of the Cimpress Group, in other locations including France." . He did not wish to make any further comments.
Easyflyer posted a record turnover for the fiscal year 2018-2019 with 24 million euros. Since 2015, it has been part of the US online printing giant, Cimpress, which includes 12 other subsidiaries, including Vistaprint, Pixartprinting, Exaprint, Wirmachendruck and PrintDeal. Its four co-founders, including Fabien Prêtre, left the company in August 2019. Four months later, the entire flatbed printing part of the Easyflyer printing plant was transferred to Italy, with Easyflyer retaining only the large format in Orléans.
Discussions are ongoing between management and employees regarding the duration and amount of reclassification leave.
