One year after Technicolor, another Angers symbolic company launches "worrying" signals

Credit : Ardoisières d'Angers

Another industrial symbol of the Angers economy coud be theatened. The Ardoisières d'Angers, created in, 1891, is facing a drop of its output since four years. The company has lost € 10 miilions during the last four years and is looking new deposits of high quality shists. But the researches have not yet got a result and 160 employees (the company hired thousands of workers in the past) are in short-time working. A resumption of activity, planned for mid-august, has finally, been delayed until september.

The outlook in housing, the Ardoisières' main outlet, are presently grim. In France, the domestic market of the Ardoisières d'Angers, the number of projects in implementation phase has decreased by 13% during the last twelve months and should not resume before months... "So the company situation is still very worrying", has said the operating manager to the local medias. The slates produced in Angers are more and more in competition with those coming from others countries. First they came from Spain. Now they come from China. About two years ago, the Chinese slates were choosen by Angers Loire Métropole for the paving of the Ralliement square.

Twelve months ago, another local symbolic company, Thomson, renamed Technicolor, had to go to closure and fire 350 employees. The output of decoders has been transferred to Vietnam. If there is nothing definitive regarding the Ardoisères d'Angers, the worrying about that comany should fuel a wider concern about the industrial future of Angers. The city mayor has met the prime minister regarding this point which could be of course an important issue of the next municipal polls.