a never-ending rescue for the glass giant Arc International

The Minister of Industry Marc Ferracci was on site, Wednesday in Hauts-de-France, to provide state support to the group, in great difficulty since the war in Ukraine. The fate of the French factory is today in the hands of the Lille commercial court.

Marc Ferracci’s ministerial trip, Wednesday January 8, 2025, was organized on the same day that a financial safeguard procedure opened before the Lille commercial court. After having lent around 130 million euros of public money to the company since 2020, the State will cancel part of the group’s debt and grant it a new loan of 30 million euros.

Arc International was hit hard by the energy crisis and the surge in prices that followed the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. To ensure its production, the crystal factory consumes an enormous amount of gas, as much as the city of Lille. But the company was doubly hit by this war with sales in free fall, with the Russian and Ukrainian markets being among its destinations.

While in 2023 the State came to the aid of the group – and its 4,500 employees in France, its shut down ovens gradually reopened in April 2023. But management had to close them a month later, because of the inflation which hit household consumption, particularly on this type of non-priority items known as tableware.

Today, the operation should make it possible to validate an agreement already reached. The current majority shareholder – the American investment fund Dick Cashin – will contribute an additional 12 million euros. And the agreement will bring two new investors into the company’s capital, who will each bring 15 million euros: Patrick Mollis, director of the Compagnie nationale de navigation, and Pascal Cagni, a former Apple employee who now chairs today the board of directors of Business France, the public agency responsible for promoting French industry to foreign investors.

The force thus deployed – by the current and new investors – shows that everyone believes in the safeguard plan and wants to convince the judges of the Lille commercial court. Based in the town of Arques, near Saint-Omer in the Pas-de-Calais department, Arc International is to date the largest glass production site in the world for tableware.

The northern factory now employs 4,000 people in France, out of a total workforce of 7,000 employees, with factories located in the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates. Despite the difficulties, no new layoffs are planned. Suffice to say that the judges of the Lille court who will have to decide on the future of the company have a heavy responsibility.