“45 days to find a solution”: pulp company Fiber Excellence placed in receivership

Paradoxical situation in Occitania this April 27. Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the Géotex factory in Lavelanet (Ariège), which will manufacture geotextiles for construction or roads from plant fibers and “symbolizes, according to the Élysée, the policy of reindustrialization and industrial revival”. Meanwhile, the Toulouse commercial court placed this Monday morning, the Saint-Gaudens (Haute-Garonne) company Fiber Excellence in receivership with an observation period of six months.

An expected decision as the shareholder of the pulp group, which also has a factory in Bouches-du-Rhône, announced, in mid-April, that it was “moving towards a cessation of payments”, weakened for many months by the rise in the price of wood and a too low resale price of electricity produced in parallel on its sites, with a loss estimated at 35 million euros in 2025.

Quickly, the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga (PS) called on “the State to do its part for the 700 employees, for their families, for our territories and for the industrial future of France”, confirming that her community “is ready to return to the capital, to contribute to the guarantee of loans, to solicit industrialists to consolidate the financial situation from now on”.

Unions “a little relieved”

Received at the beginning of the afternoon at the Haute-Garonne prefecture by an industry advisor to the Head of State, the unions still said they were “a little relieved”. “Even if the deadline granted is short, there has been no direct liquidation announced,” reacted Sébastien Oustric, CGT union delegate at the Saint-Gaudens factory (Haute-Garonne), ahead of this meeting.

“We have 45 days to find a solution,” added his counterpart from Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône), Laurent Quinto, referring to the review clause every two months. By meeting the teams of the President of the Republic, the staff representatives of Fiber Excellence wanted to have more guarantees on the 150 million euros that the State had committed to putting on the table last February and on its desire to complete the support package with a reassessment of electricity purchase prices, up to +20%.

“If the price of the MWh is not linked to the price of wood, it is not possible,” assured Laurent Quinto. Faced with Asian or Brazilian competition in the paper pulp market, the two sites in the south of France cannot compete without it. “Between us, we produce 500,000 tonnes per year. Factories in Brazil produce 1 to 3 million tonnes, with a production cost three times lower,” points out the man who is also CGT secretary to the social and economic committee.

10,700 jobs to save

In the presence of the sub-prefect of Saint-Gaudens, the various unions were able to present alternative economic models, based on diversification. “We have promising projects for our factories. We are certain that with state aid and our costed projects, our factories are viable. » If they assure that they have been listened to and evoke promising exchanges, the unions estimate that the State must commit to providing 20 million euros to save 10,700 jobs in the wood and paper sector in France.

“If he doesn’t help us, it could cost him very dearly, with the PSE, but especially the dismantling and decontamination of the two sites, estimated at 500 million euros,” underlines for example Laurent Quinto, who expects a return from the State before May 1 or, at the latest, next Monday.