Charging stations | Flo cuts 15% of its workforce

Five months after its largest round of financing, the Quebec manufacturer and operator of charging station networks for electric vehicles Flo is cutting 15% of its workforce – around 75 people – because it must reduce its expenses.

“Sales are going well, we are not in decline,” says the company’s communications director, Maude Blouin. It’s a profitability issue. It is not with joy of heart that we do this. It’s a difficult day for us. »

Nonetheless, this is the fourth time since the start of the year that the ax has fallen at Flo, whose head office is in Quebec. Cuts have already been made in Montreal, Quebec, Shawinigan, in the rest of Canada as well as in the United States.

There should be approximately 425 employees remaining at the end of this new workforce reduction. It essentially concerns administrative positions distributed across the organization, says M^me Blouin. The spokesperson for the charging station specialist did not specify whether certain offices were paying more.

Since Flo is a privately held company, its financial data is not public. The Quebec company currently generates between 20 and 25% of its annual turnover south of the border. Flo says it has sold more than 120,000 terminals in the North American market. This includes residential units, public and private – in employers, businesses and businesses, for example. In Quebec, there are some 2,325 public terminals.

Given the size of the American market, it should soon be as important as Canada for the terminal manufacturer. It remains to be seen whether the election of Republican Donald Trump, less favorable to the electrification of transport compared to the Biden administration, will change the situation.

Flo terminals are assembled in Shawinigan and Auburn Hills, in the US state of Michigan. M^me Blouin specifies that employees assigned to production are spared from the most recent cutbacks. In addition to manufacturing terminals, the company specializes in intelligent charging solutions for electric vehicles. It operates its own network.

Flo announced its largest round of financing last June. The company had raised 136 million from Export Development Canada, which is leading the round, the Quebec government, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the Business Development Bank of Canada, the Montreal firm MacKinnon, Bennett & Company as well as as well as the New York firm Energy Impact Partners.

Quebec injected nearly 16 million while the Caisse had put a few tens of millions on the table – less than 50 million according to our information. The participation of other investors had not been disclosed.

This sum should help Flo accelerate the deployment of its North American charging network and market two new products, namely the FLO Ultra terminal – which can recharge most new electric vehicles to 80% in 15 minutes – and the FLO Maison model. , in the residential niche.