It is one of the Valencian companies that receives the most public assistance and yet continues to operate slowly. The historic textile company Marie Claire, headquartered in Vilafranca, finds it difficult to open up new markets and grow in orders and invoicing, and this is JWith the rise in energy and raw material prices, the vast majority of the workforce has been immersed in numerous temporary employment regulation files (delay).
Of the 230 people who make up the Marie Claire team, and as you may have learned Mediterranean, from the group Iberian press, they currently only work between 80 and 90. No demand for more hands. The B2TEX business group, which took over the Els Ports company two years ago, chose to tailor its human team as much as possible to the workload.. A decision in which it seeks to obtain liquidity to gradually reinstate workers He says that they are at home now that the new business lines that they are trying to open have started to bear fruit and the orders for underwear, socks and swimwear, which are their flagship products, have increased again.
In theory, the workforce’s immediate future is unknown, although ERTE, which includes almost two-thirds of the company’s employees, ends in June. And it’s also the intention of company management that professionals start returning to their positions from the next day. moonit is not unlikely that the recruitment regulation file will continue over time.
But ERTE’s successor has consequences for the workforce. Affected workers are consuming unemployment as there is a temporary employment regulation due to production conditions and no longer has anything to do with files due to covid. A situation that causes some, especially young people, to leave the company voluntarily. And that’s one of the reasons (along with the closure of the Borriol plant at the end of 2022 and the agreed leave of another hundred workers at the beginning of 2022). Marie Claire’s people team is unlike anything it was a few years ago, when the number of people exceeded 900.
public money
Despite the adjustments and strategic plan designed by B2TEX based mainly on increasing sales abroad and promoting the online channel, Marie Claire’s health remains fragile. And in recent years the company has received 21 million euro in public aid. In June 2021, Valencia Generalitat gave the green light to the issuance of two loans (one 7.7 million and the other 1.8 million), and a further 12 million euros were awarded a year later (at the beginning of June 2022).
This injection of public money to coincide with the company’s acquisition by B2TEX (Consell has always viewed the textile company as a strategic company, given that its presence in the interior of the state has helped prevent depopulation), YouIt was of a finalist character and among the conditions imposed were to continue productive activity in Vilafranca and to pay off debt with its workers and suppliers. Likewise, loans were conditioned on maintaining most of the business.
Thanks to these loans, on advantageous terms and always according to sources close to the company, The management of the textile company was updated with payments made with suppliers and workers, but the assistance was not used to improve workers’ working conditions or invest in new machinery. improve production processes. No investment was made for the modernization of the facilities, which have been defective for two years.