Saint-Gobain Sekurit to close down due to ‘accumulated losses’, 130 jobs lost

Saint-Gobain Sekurit will cease production activity in Portugal “due to accumulated losses in recent years,” having already started the process of collective dismissal of 130 workers, the Saint-Gobain Group company announced Tuesday.

“Saint-Gobain Sekurit Portugal will cease production due to accumulated losses in recent years, caused by the crisis in the automotive sector and aggravated by the low competitiveness of the company’s products against its competitors in the international market,” it said in a statement.

The company said that the collective dismissal process of 130 workers has already begun, through formal communication to the Workers’ Commission and the Employment and Labour Relations Office (DGERT).

According to the company, and “given the situation that over the past few years has penalised workers, who have seen their wages frozen, Saint-Gobain Sekurit Portugal will propose compensation higher than that legally provided for, in addition to complementary benefits to the value of the compensation that, in some way, help compensate for the loss of jobs.

Between 2018 and 2020, the auto glass manufacturer – based in Santa Iria da Azoia, in the municipality of Loures – says it has accumulated a loss of €8.5 million, covered by the shareholder “through successive financing”.

In 2019 it recorded “a decrease in turnover of 18%, corresponding to a drop of €10 million, which was accentuated in 2020 with a decrease of 37%, about €17 million less,” the company adds.

“All the company’s financial indicators are negative and it is not envisaged that in the coming years they can be reversed, putting pressure on other units of the group, which are bearing the losses of Saint-Gobain Sekurit Portugal,” it maintains.

In Portugal, the Saint-Gobain Group currently employs around 800 people in 11 companies and eight factories, with a total turnover of around €180 million.

The group recalls having begun construction in Maia of a new factory for Saint-Gobain Abrasivos, with 9,000 square metres, and updating the industrial park and furnace for glass transformation at the Covipor production unit in Santo Tirso.

Also recently, the group says it has completed an increase in the production capacity of the pulp line at the Saint-Gobain Portugal S.A. unit in Aveiro, and is expanding the ‘picking’ warehouse at this company’s unit in Carregado, “which will now have 1,854 square metres, with a view to creating new business areas”.

“Between ongoing projects and recently developed projects, the investments total a value of more than €7 million.”

With regard to Saint-Gobain Sekurit Portugal, the group says that “the problems are more than a decade old, and the company has undergone several restructurings in an attempt to minimise structural and operational expenses”.

“Until now, it has only been possible to keep the company in operation with the understanding and involvement of the workers and through constant capitalisation of the company by the partners. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened an already fragile situation, substantially increasing the retraction of the automobile market, with no possibility of recovery in the short, medium and long term.”