A festive atmosphere reigns in the large Eurostyle Systems hangar, in Poinçonnet, in the Châteauroux area. Thursday June 27, 400 people gathered to celebrate the company’s 60th anniversary on its oldest site. This is where the very first piece was made: the 4L logo. “The company has become a key player in the automotive sector,” boasts François-Xavier Lemasson, CEO of Eurostyle Systems. The tone changes when he starts talking about the present and the future. “We must remain united despite a difficult context, and the uncertainties that weigh a little more heavily every day.”
Since a year, Eurostyle Systems Châteauroux saw its turnover increase from 30 million euros to 25 million euros. The automotive sector is going through a complicated period. “The market is falling slightly and electric vehicles are not growing as expected. So production remains low, analyzes François-Xavier Lemasson. We are 13% below the average value of the last ten years. And we are still 20% below 2019 in terms of the French automobile market.”
Unions fear job cuts
This has direct consequences for the employees of Eurostyle Systems in Châteauroux. They have to go on partial unemployment about one day a week since January 2024. “We are losing a little bit in terms of salary,” deplores one of them. Management seeks to reassure: “Next year we will launch a new car, the C5 Aircross. We should get back above 30 million in turnover.” Elle also focuses on diversification. “Now we are also working on non-automotive production.”
Since Eurostyle Systems was acquired by the GMD Group in 2009, it has become an international company “It wasn’t necessarily our cup of tea, but unfortunately it was necessary to be able to develop,” declares Alain Martineau, CEO of GMD, in his birthday speech. Today, it is present in 11 countries. And A new technical center should also open in Portugal. This worries the unions. “A Portuguese engineer costs much less than a French engineer. This is a loss of knowledge and skills that are detrimental to the automotive industry,” deplores Laurent Joly, CGT Eurostyle Systems union representative at the design office in Châteauroux.
“We’re afraid of ending up like Imperial Wheels”
While the GMD group is for sale, the unions fear for the future of the Castelroussin site of Eurostyle Systems, which has nearly 400 employees. “I’ve been in the auto industry for 25 years. Every time there’s been a new CEO, a new investor, it’s been accompanied by job cuts, warns Laurent Joly. The automotive industry lost 100,000 jobs between 2010 and 2020.”
The unions have asked to meet soon with the potential buyer(s) of GMD, to demand that staff be maintained. They fear more than anything to suffer the same fate as the employees of Impériales Wheelswhose company, based in Poinçonnet, was placed in liquidation last week.
