SIB: Saint-Léonard printing plant faces redundancies

ollowed by devastating floods in 2023, the SIB printing plant in Saint-Léonard is struggling to recover, despite efforts to reorganize. The company has announced a plan to save jobs by November 2024, including the elimination of 70 positions, i.e. almost half its workforce. The site has been in partial operation since the disaster, and its future depends on decisive restructuring.

Flooding in the winter of 2023 in the Pas-de-Calais region of France left indelible marks on SIB's workshops, located near the river La Liane. The water level, which flooded the workshop to a height of one meter, damaged almost all the electronic equipment. Since then, only three of the plant's seven production lines have been able to restart, reducing initial production capacity by a third.

Marc Leroy, director of SIB, testifies to the devastation: "You can still see the water marks on the machines. All the control and electronic cabinets were drowned.

This disaster highlights the vulnerability of local industrial companies to increasing climatic risks, a problem that could become critical if protective measures are not put in place.

In addition to material damage, the SIB printing plant has to contend with a slump in the leaflet market. A 50% drop in demand for this segment in recent months is exacerbating economic pressure, making repair investments impossible to envisage without major financial risks. This trend, affecting the entire graphics industry, is forcing companies to question their viability and diversification options. For SIB, already weakened by the loss of production capacity, this slowdown is a further brake on its recovery and reinforces the urgency of restructuring. Read more : SIB printing works engulfed by water and Up all night, the SIB printing plant battles the 3rd flood of the week.

Against this difficult backdrop, SIB has initiated a court-ordered safeguard procedure, effective since October 16, 2024, and will announce a job preservation plan in November. The aim is to limit the social impact by minimizing the number of departures. However, 70 of the 150 current employees are expected to be made redundant, marking a turning point for the company, which must adapt its organization to remain operational. "For those who leave, as for those who stay, there's nothing simple about it", admits Marc Leroy, emphasizing the human and social aspects of restructuring. The company is therefore emphasizing the need to provide support for employees affected by restructuring, and is planning internal retraining schemes.

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