Verrerie Arc: justice validates the takeover by Timothée Durand, 700 job cuts still planned

Arc glassware is not going away. The commercial court of Tourcoing (North) approved on Friday March 20 its takeover by the sole candidate, Timothée Durand, from a family of emblematic leaders of this bicentennial group. But this return to basics has a bitter taste, 700 job cuts are planned.

Timothée Durand, 49, said in a press release that he was “very happy and proud to take over this family business” and stressed that his priority was “from now on to keep this heritage alive” by focusing on “excellence and innovation”.

In 2024, the group achieved a turnover of 688 million euros worldwide, including just over 400 million euros for Arc France, a company that has been making chronic losses for years and is highly indebted. Arc France’s net loss amounted to more than 32 million euros in 2024, according to financial documents available online.

A job protection plan (PSE) was already validated on March 10 by the Arc France unions, as part of the company’s legal recovery announced at the beginning of January. This PSE, a sine qua non condition to allow the takeover of the group by Timothée Durand, provides for 704 job cuts on its main site in Arques (Pas-de-Calais), which currently has 3,500 employees. The breakdown between voluntary departures and redundancies was not yet precisely known on Friday.

“The ax is quite violent”

This takeover makes it possible to avoid the disappearance of this historic company in Pas-de-Calais, which will now be called “Verrerie Arc 1 825”, but it remains difficult for employees to digest. “In any case, it’s that or nothing, so we have no choice,” summarized Frédéric Specque, CGT union representative, before the court’s decision.

But the pill “is very bitter” with this “very heavy” PSE, he adds, deploring the absence of additional measures on the part of the State to maximize voluntary departures. “The ax is quite violent,” also believes Corinne Guenez (CFE-CGC).

“We will ensure, with the highest standards, that each employee benefits from a reclassification solution and a rapid return to employment,” assured Friday the Minister of Labor Jean-Pierre Farandou and the Minister Delegate for Industry Sébastien Martin in a joint declaration sent to AFP.

“Supported by a solid business plan and confirmed financing, this recovery gives this industrial flagship a clear development trajectory,” the ministers further estimated.

Difficulties for twenty years

“I am not the villain of the story, I am realistic,” Timothée Durand told AFP at the end of January. The cuts in the workforce are necessary to “resize” the Arques site to the volumes that the group is capable of selling, he has repeated since he announced that he was a candidate for takeover, the same day that Arc France was placed in receivership.

The entrepreneur had been mulling over his plan to take over Arc, where he spent most of his career, for a long time. A member of the family that ran the company for a century until 2015, Timothée Durand left it in 2024, after a first aborted attempt to buy it back. Its takeover plan plans to inject 50 million euros into Arc, with the financial support of Matthieu Leclercq, former boss of Decathlon.

Since the second half of the 20th century, Arc has been a world leader in tableware glasses. The group produces glasses and utensils under four main brands: Luminarc, Cristal d’Arques Paris, Arcoroc and Chefs&Sommelier, as well as under private labels.

But after having invested heavily to globalize its production and distribution, the group, which has three other factories in the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates, has had a series of difficulties for around twenty years. Its workforce in Arques has been almost divided by three since the beginning of the 2000s, and the group has benefited from multiple refinancing plans supported by the State and local authorities in recent years.

Arc has been very weakened by the surge in energy costs and inflation since the start of the war in Ukraine, but also the intensification of competition from China in particular, and the crisis in the tableware sector. The new war which has engulfed the Middle East since the end of February risks adding to the difficulties, with a rise in energy prices.