“It’s a whole life that is collapsing”: construction, transport… Business failures are exploding

Marc Villepontoux met with TF1 in front of the last house that this entrepreneur built, more than five months ago. Since then, he has no more work in progress. “It’s unheard of. We have sometimes experienced difficult periods, but never five or six months” immediately without new construction, explains this manager of MV Constructions in the video at the top of this article.

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Rising prices of construction materials, increasing credit rates… Without a new project, debts accumulate and his company’s accounts turn red. Faced with this situation, Marc Villepontoux was forced to make a difficult but essential choice according to him: the dismissal of employees. “We had to lay off four people and this year we have employees under contract that we have not renewed”he says. The company’s workforce went from 22 to 14 employees. “Without these layoffs, we would be in serious difficulty and it would be impossible to maintain our production because the activity of the new villa has fallen by 70%”believes this entrepreneur.

“An endless well”

If Marc Villepontoux can still fight, it is however too much for other leaders. This is the case of a former boss of a building renovation company whose business has just been liquidated after two years of financial difficulties. Preferring to testify anonymously, he recounts the “spiral” with the “loss of confidence” of its suppliers, its customers and its bankers. “It was an endless well”he remembers. This failure is still very difficult to digest today. “It’s a whole life that collapses. When you’re a business manager, you carry it at arm’s length and that’s not how you see its end”he explains.

Like Marc, dozens of business leaders pass through the doors of a commercial court every day. At that of Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), where TF1 went, the hearings for recovery or for judicial liquidation are occurring at an ever faster pace. Construction companies, restaurants and even hair salons are particularly affected, particularly due to inflation. “Compared to the reference year 2019, business failures are up 37%; compared to 2023, we record 18% additional failures”details Germain Moreno, president of the Perpignan commercial court. These also concern “long-standing family businesses rather than start-ups”he specifies.

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Business failures could even reach a record in 2024, reaching more than 65,000. The bankruptcy of a company often leads to the failure of other companies. This domino effect also affects a sector which was recruiting furiously just a year ago: road transport. Christophe Charbon almost paid the price: “We were heading towards filing for bankruptcy, I no longer had a job, nor my employees”says the director of ICW Transport and logistics. The sale of his company’s headquarters allowed him to settle his debts and restructure his business. Christophe Charbon hopes that this breath of fresh air will allow him to ensure the survival of his business for as long as possible.