The customs policy of the United States is felt even in Yvelines. Buffet-Crampon and Selmer, two French flagships of instrumental manufacturing based in Mantes-la-Ville (Yvelines), have decided to activate technical unemployment schemes to cope with the drop in orders on the American market.
For several weeks, the 250 employees of the clarinetist Buffet-Crampon have been forced to stay at home on average one day per week. Whereas at Selmer, which specializes in the design of saxophones, these non-working periods spread, according to an internal source, “over one to two weeks per month”.
In question? The increase in customs duties decided before the summer by the administration of President Donald Trump. At Buffet-Crampon, this increase increases the price of high-end clarinets sold by the Mantes-la-Ville site by around 12% to 15%. “This has a direct and quite significant consequence for our group: we are recording a drop in orders of around 15% on the American market. Clearly, Americans are ordering less. However, it is a market which represents 30% of our activity, indicates Jérôme Perrod, president of Buffet-Crampon. The impact is inevitably visible. »
At neighboring Selmer, specializing in the manufacture of saxophones, the repercussions are even more painful: a large part of the 475 employees would be forced to rest one week per month. Difficult to know more: the representatives of the group did not wish to comment further. “The company remains fully focused on its activities and on current projects, in France and internationally,” a source close to management simply declares.
“Morale is affected,” says an employee
In both cases, the economic mechanism is similar: due to the increase in prices, orders fall and, by mechanical effect, stocks increase. To adapt, companies then decide to slow down production by resorting to technical unemployment. The same decision was recently taken by the car manufacturer Stellantis, which has the last vehicle production plant in Ile-de-France in Poissy (Yvelines), to respond to the sluggish market.
This situation is unprecedented for these two brands of excellence, renowned throughout the world for the quality of their products and whose order book has never faltered. Although it does not represent a long-term economic threat, this “first” would have “shaken” some of the staff, according to an internal source.
“In certain departments, morale is inevitably affected,” confides an employee. This also affects our personal organization because we don’t always know when these non-working days are scheduled. Our finances also take a hit because on those days we only get paid about 75%. »
A petition launched by an employee with 1,200 signatures
One of them, distressed by the situation, even launched a petition called “A music on standby – Let’s wake it up” to warn of the threat weighing on “heritage know-how (…) passed down for several generations”. “The risk of layoffs and relocations is real. We ask the French and European public authorities to intervene diplomatically to obtain a targeted exemption from customs duties on musical instruments, to officially recognize the sector as a strategic cultural and artisanal sector and to put in place an economic support plan for affected companies, including export and cash flow aid. » The petition has, for the moment, only collected 1,282 signatures this Tuesday.