Aplix, a specialist in hook-and-loop tapes, will close its factory in Pontchâteau, in Loire-Atlantique. This site, which employs 55 of Aplix's 388 employees, manufactures stretch closures for baby diapers and yarn for weaving or knitting looms. Part of Pontchâteau's activity will be consolidated on the Cellier site, near Nantes, the group's headquarters and main factory. 30 positions will be offered there. The migration will begin in the second quarter and be completed by the end of 2025.
Aplix explains that since 2020 it has seen its sales decline in the hygiene market, under the effect of “increasingly severe” foreign competition. “Hygiene” turnover thus lost nearly 30 million euros between 2016 and 2023. And in France, Aplix's turnover overall fell from 97.5 to 77.3 million euros. . At the same time, profitability has deteriorated. “The development of the industrial and automotive markets only partially offset the deterioration of the hygiene market», Explains Sandrine Pelletier, CEO of the group, citing other adverse conditions including Covid, the rise in raw materials and energy and recruitment difficulties.
We consume fewer diapers
What's more, after the pandemic, significant overcapacity of nonwoven products appeared, particularly in Turkey and the Middle East where production of low-cost stretch products was set up. At the same time, the diaper market, which has been growing for a long time, has been declining significantly for several years. The cause: the drop in births, and inflation encouraging consumers to reduce the number of daily diapers. From then on, diaper manufacturers sought to lower their costs and Aplix had to reduce its margins.
«Losses accelerated in the second half of 2024 and forecasts for 2025 are very low», Informs the company. “This unfavorable context and the absence of any prospect of positive development in this stretch market no longer allow us to envisage a return to profitability of the Pontchâteau site, and represent a risk for the sustainability of Aplix», continues Sandrine Pelletier. The grouping of activities should therefore make it possible to reduce structural costs and use the industrial space available at Le Cellier where 17 million euros were invested in 2019 and 2020 while new hook-and-loop technologies were developed to enter other markets. Thus, according to the manager, “turnover (196 million euros in 2024) should remain stable in 2025 and grow by 4% in 2026 and 2027».
