This French car manufacturer will close its factory in Vendée and cut 125 jobs!

The year 2025 is not starting off under the best auspices for certain French players in the automobile industry. Thus, the license-free car manufacturer Ligier will close its Vendée factory and eliminate dozens of positions.

“The Ligier group must today transform its production model to above all regain profitability and the investment capacities necessary for its development”responded in an email to an AFP correspondent François Ligier, CEO of the eponymous group. A transfer of activities of the car manufacturer without a license in order to refocus Ligier’s industrial activities on its historic site in Abrest, in the Allier department.

Positions eliminated without layoffs?

This closure of the Vendée factory should have serious consequences for the employees with the result, according to the daily Ouest-France,the elimination of 125 positions out of the 145 currently on the site. Note that according to the manufacturer’s direction “There will be job creation in Abrest, our objective is not to reduce our number of employees in the group”.

The fault of general practitioners

The difficulties encountered by Ligier are linked in particular to fierce competition in the license-free car segment and in particular to the arrival of large “generalist” manufacturers such as Stellantis and Renault (with the Citroën Ami and the Mobilize Duo), which invest massively and “have lower production costs because they manufacture outside Europe (Morocco)” said Mr. Ligier; but also in a context of rising raw material costs since the start of the war in Ukraine. For their part, the mayor of Montaigu-Vendée and the president of the urban community reacted in a press release to this factory closure: “It is with sadness that we learn of the upcoming closure of this emblematic factory of the territory and we share the emotion of its employees at the prospect of a corporate social plan”.