The boss of Renault undertakes to offer a job to each employee of the Brittany foundry if it closes

The boss of Renault announced Tuesday that a job would be offered on one of the group’s sites at each employee of the Brittany Foundry if the former builder’s subsidiary were to close.

“If, unfortunately, despite the amounts initiated by Renault, no recovery plan is emerging, we will take our responsibilities and we will offer a job equivalent to employees on one of our sites in France”, launched Luca de Meo before the deputies of the Economic Affairs Committee. Knowing, however, that the group does not have an implementation in Brittany.

300 employees potentially concerned

Former subsidiary of the manufacturer in the diamond, Foundry of Brittany (FDB), whose 300 employees produce cast iron parts for suspensions and exhausts, had been sold in 2022 to the German investment fund Callista Private Equity.

But Renault refused since the summer of 2024 to engage in a volume of orders for the coming years, refusal which would, according to the management of FDB, have the discussions started for a resumption of the company to be reached by another fund investment, private assets.

The European plan to switch to all-electric in 2035 was not “properly anticipated by the actors”

In front of the deputies, who multiplied the questions on the Caudan foundry (Morbihan), Luca de Meo regretted that “everyone (has not taken the measure of what is happening” with the turn of industry automobile to electric.

This, accelerated by the European plan to switch to the whole-electrical in 2035, “drastically reduced cast iron needs” and was not “properly anticipated by political and economic actors”, underlined Luca de Meo.

“Can we ask Renault to assume the consequences of a political choice” and “the failure of the management of Brittany Foundry? “Launched the director general of the French group. He repeated that the manufacturer had proposed to put “35 million euros in the scale” to help the recovery and diversification of its former factory, which has become its supplier.

Employees of the Foundry and Renault had demonstrated earlier before the manufacturer’s headquarters and near the National Assembly upstream of the hearing, asking that Renault assumes its responsibilities.