Big mobilization in prospect, this Tuesday, at the foot of the company Exterion-Media (ex-Giraudy), in Issy-les-Moulineaux.
The employees of the outdoor advertising company are called by their unions to stop work and to assemble - with chasubles, megaphones and banners - in front of the company's headquarters.
The goal: to oppose the social plan currently being negotiated at the billboard, which could result in a clear cut in the workforce.
Set up by Samfi-invest - the Norman investment company which bought Exterion only three months ago - the job protection plan (PSE) provides for the elimination of 99 jobs out of the 300 in the business.
The workforce reduction should affect both the Issy-les-Moulineaux headquarters, where 100 people work, and the group's regional branches, some of which could be closed.
"After the health crisis, it would be, supposedly, the only solution to save the box", reports a CFDT trade unionist, between doubt and disgust.
“The Covid did not help matters, for sure.
But this is far from being the first explanation for our situation, ”she continues, referring to a succession of“ strategic errors ”in a context of growing mistrust against display advertising for environmental reasons.
A more than a century old company, known by its former name of Giraudy, Exterion Média is in any case one of the heavyweights in the outdoor advertising display sector.
OOH communication, for Out Of Home, in the jargon of the profession.
In 2019, the company applied for the juicy display advertising market in the capital, alongside a subsidiary of JCDecaux (world leader in the sector) and the American ClearChannel, which won the contract.
Turnover fell by a quarter
Like all its competitors, the display company has suffered the full brunt of the consequences of the health crisis.
It resulted in a total cessation of activity during the first confinement and the desertification of public space.
Due to cash flow difficulties and the reluctance of advertisers, activity has only picked up slowly since.
According to data sent to unions before the launch of the PSE, Exterion Media's turnover, which exceeded 100 million euros in 2019, fell by 26% the following year.
"We have returned to the level of activity of 1999", confirms the management of the company, which hopes to regain the pre-crisis financial results as soon as possible ... in 2024!
From the start of the health crisis, the CEO of the company, Jean-François Curtil, sounded the alarm on social networks, comparing the economic situation of the display sector to that of the air or tourism.
“Our parent company [
Editor's note: at the time the British group Global]
will not be able to fill all the cracks that appear in our markets on its own,” he then warned.
Eight months later, the CEO - kept in office by the new shareholder - now insists on "the unprecedented investment plan", which will accompany the company's recovery program.
The display, which is counting on reducing its operating costs by 10 million euros per year, will invest 37 million, in particular for the development of digital advertising.
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"It is a plan of the last chance, without any recognition for the work of employees who have been there, sometimes, for more than 20 years and without compensation other than the strict legal minimum", indignant the representatives of the employees.
They fully intend to display their anger this Tuesday, on the Esplanade du Foncet and under the windows of their management.
