Jean-Christophe Chanjou, founder of APAr, announced this Thursday on BFM Business that he was giving up the plan to take over Duralex. L'annonce comes on the very day the deadline for submitting takeover bids falls, this Thursday 6 August at noon.
The executive justified his decision by the scale of the investments needed to bring the glassmaker's industrial equipment up to standard. « C'est un projet qui m'a fait rêver mais il faut complètement réinvestir le processus industriel, le repenser, le rééquiper, aujourd'hui le chargement des containers se fait à la main, c'est fou. La masse d'investissements pour mettre à niveau l'outil existant est tellement énorme que ça nous paraît », he explains. « Je n'ai pas les clés aujourd'hui pour aller sur ce projet », he adds. He also mentions a viability criterion that he considers untenable given his current resources: « Le critère fondamental, c'est la viabilité, est-ce que je peux tenir mes engagements, payer les salaires, mes créanciers. Aujourd'hui, les hypothèses que j'ai faites pour sortir l'entreprise de l'eau me semblent avec mes moyens pas réalisables », he concludes.
A fifth receivership in around twenty years
Founded in 1945 and known for its glasses reputed to be unbreakable, Duralex is going through a tight cash-flow situation, which led to the launch of an audit by the State and then the opening of a court-ordered receivership procedure in June. Two years after being taken over as a worker cooperative by its employees, the company is undergoing its fifth receivership in around twenty years.
Duralex ended the year with revenue of around 30 million euros. Yet, according to François Marciano, former managing director of the Scop, since replaced on an interim basis by Peggy Sadier, a much higher threshold would need to be crossed to turn the business around: « Pour sauver Duralex, il faut passer cette barre de 35-36 millions d'euros qui permet d'être à l'équilibre », he had said in October.
Two candidates still in the running
With APAr's withdrawal, a priori two candidates remain in the running for the takeover. The Saint-Étienne-based group Carlesimo, a specialist in taking over and restructuring strategic industrial companies, is among them. According to France Inter, Cédric Meston, co-founder of the start-up HappyVore and the person behind the takeover of Tupperware France, is also said to be in contention.
