Faurecia is optimistic that the closure of the Aulnay Citroen factory in France by its large shareholder PSA Peugeot Citroen will not have a considerable impact on its business.
“The Aulnay plant closure does not imply significant consequences for Faurecia – it’s manageable certainly. Peugeot is not cutting production by closing a plant, they are cutting capacity,” Faurecia’s chief executive Yann Delabriere told Reuters on the sidelines of a Handelsblatt auto industry conference.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
PSA Peugeot Citroen, which represents only 15% of Faurecia’s sales globally, on Thursday announced up to 8,000 job cuts and the closure of the assembly plant as it struggles with mounting losses, in a move that could hasten a wave of restructuring in western Europe.
“The supplier industry has already adjusted its capacity and fixed cost base severely during the 2008 and 2009 crisis. Faurecia itself has adjusted its fixed cost base by more than 20% globally during that period,” Delabriere said.
He said the ever stronger German car industry with companies like Volkswagen, its biggest single customer, represent a total of about 40% of its global sales, insulating it somewhat from problems in Europe.
“The large restructuring period is mostly over for us. We will permanently adjust to the automotive environment but the major adjustment is behind us,” he told Reuters.
