Three candidates, including the parent company of Pyrex, have submitted offers to the commercial court of Orleans for the takeover of the Duralex glassworks, AFP learned from a union source on Wednesday.
Read also: The Duralex brand, known for its canteen glasses, will it disappear?
The court will examine on January 22 the takeover bids of the company located in La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin (Loiret), famous the world over for its tempered glass tableware, but placed in receivership in September 2020. The deadline of the submission of tenders had been set for December 31, 2020. Duralex employs 248 people in its factory in the Orleans area.
Among the candidates for the takeover of Duralex is Pyrex's parent company, International Cookware Holding, controlled by the European investment fund Kartesia.
This company plans to take over all the employees and promises to contribute 12 million euros for the 2021 fiscal year.
The other two applications appear fragile and "
incomplete
", according to sources familiar with the matter.
One comes from the current directors of the company, André and Antoine Ioannidès, for the benefit of an order of May 2020 which facilitates the takeover of a company by its own shareholder.
From the same source, the two manufacturers also plan to keep all the employees but do not provide any guarantee of financing.
The last offer, not very detailed, is presented by an "
independent sales agent
", Pierre-Olivier Baron.
The glassworks, in difficulty following an incident during the replacement of its furnace in 2017, saw its situation deteriorate with the health crisis.
The latter led to a drop in exports and a decline in sales in the hotel and restaurant sector.