The Interministerial Committee for Industrial Restructuring (Ciri) helped in 2022 to restructure 31 companies in difficulty, thus returning to its pre-Covid-19 levels, the organization said on Monday, stressing however that French industry had particularly exposed to inflation on energy prices.
“After a very sharp increase in the number of referrals in 2020 linked to the consequences of the health crisis, Ciri’s activity has normalized since 2021 with 34 new referrals in 2021 and 31 in 2022”, covering “more than 53,000 jobs” , the organization said in its 2022 activity report, published on Monday. These volumes are “close to the level observed before the Covid period” – 32 companies assisted in 2019, representing 59,884 employees -, “thus materializing a return to normal in the committee’s activity”, it is specified, while 70 new referrals had taken place in 2020 (representing more than 96,000 jobs).
The 31 new referrals in 2022 “echo the resistance to inflation and the war in Ukraine of the French economic fabric”, welcomed the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, quoted in the press release. However, the 2022 financial year saw a “significant” return in requests for aid from companies belonging to the industrial sector, which represent 69% of new referrals. “This is explained in particular by their high exposure to the increase in the cost of energy and raw materials observed from the 1st half of 2022”, as well as by the “components crisis” which affected the automotive industry. electronics and automotive and aeronautical subcontractors, deciphers the Ciri. “The sector of distribution and trade in textile articles remains” also “strongly present” (19% of new referrals), “reflecting the strong changes in the sector in progress for the last 10 years”, underlined the Ciri, while that French ready-to-wear companies are going through a series of hardships, between placements in receivership and liquidations.
Conversely, the number of tourism, event and transport companies – sectors directly affected by the pandemic – having requested the organization in 2022 “has logically been greatly reduced compared to the two previous years”. In detail, of the 31 files processed in 2022, 23 had a “favorable outcome” (for 35,529 jobs), 7 are still being processed and one ended in failure.
Created in 1982, the Ciri can support companies with more than 400 employees to help them transform, with the aim of continuing the activity while preserving “the maximum number of jobs”.
