Hennessy announced to its employees on Monday, November 25, the suspension of its project to relocate the bottling of cognac to China. A prospect which provoked a strong reaction in the Charente region.
The subsidiary of the luxury group LVMH had presented this initiative to employee representatives ten days earlier. “Management told us that they wanted to carry out a trial bulk export of cognac to China in mid-December with bottling carried out on site by a Chinese subcontractor”says Yvan Biais, CGT union representative at Hennessy. The challenge is to free ourselves from the taxes that the Chinese government wishes to impose on cognac imports, in response to the 35% surcharge decreed by the European Union, hitting Chinese electric vehicles imported into Europe.
China has, in fact, required, since October 11, that importers of European brandies (wine-based spirits), of which cognac represents 95% of the total, deposit a deposit or a letter of bank guarantee with Chinese customs, representing 34% to 39% of the merchandise, as part of an anti-dumping investigation. But this taxation, currently described as temporary, would only apply to containers of less than 200 liters. An open door left for the export of bulk cognac.
Strategic reflections
Following the formalization of its bottling relocation project, Hennessy employees massively went on strike on Tuesday November 19 and Wednesday November 20, with nearly 500 demonstrating in front of the company's headquarters. , rue de la Richonne, in Cognac (Charente), Tuesday. Knowing that the unions at Verallia, a manufacturer of glass bottles, were encouraging their company's employees to join the movement.
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Employees of other Charente brandy houses did not fail to question the desire of their respective management to follow the example of the major competitor. Thus, on November 20, the Pernod Ricard group transmitted its official position to the members of the social and economic committee (CSE) in Cognac. “ As part of the company's strategic thinking, the possibility of bottling operations outside the appellation area is only one of the different options that producers present in China must study. To date, taking into account all the constraints analyzed, this option has not been retained. »
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