(Montreal) Quebec commercial semi-trailer manufacturer Manac may have to lay off up to 200 employees in the coming months due to a slowdown in the industry.
This was stated by the company’s president and CEO on the sidelines of an announcement concerning loan financing totaling 170 million. This amount should enable Manac to expand and modernize its factory established since 1967 in Saint-Georges, in Beauce.
Charles Dutil told The Canadian Press that the company sent out a notice of potential layoffs a few weeks ago.
“Our employees have been informed. We believe that the number of layoffs will not reach 200,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Dutil explained that the transportation equipment industry is facing a slowdown in North America.
“Production is going to be significantly lower in the second half of 2024 than what we have experienced in the last few years. Unfortunately, we cannot have more production hours than what is required,” he said.
Possible layoffs could occur by late summer or early fall. They would be distributed among different factories of the company.
Their number could be lower if certain submissions are released or if certain orders come in more quickly than anticipated, said Mr. Dutil.
At the start of the year, Manac also indicated the possibility of laying off 45 people. About a dozen people were ultimately laid off before being called back to work a few weeks later, the CEO said.
Asked whether this financing could help avoid layoffs, Mr. Dutil replied that these are “two completely independent situations in the life of the company.”
The financing is linked to the project to modernize and expand the Saint-Georges plant which was planned over the last 18 or 24 months, and this is currently in progress for at least two years, said Mr. .Dutil.
“Throughout this period of project completion, there is the economic cycle” which causes a slowdown, he added.
In a press release, Mr. Dutil indicates that the amounts obtained will make it possible to adapt the St-Georges factory “to the evolution of the dimensions of semi-trailers permitted by the standards”. They must also make it possible to “improve productivity through the integration of innovative technologies and broaden the reach of the company’s offering through the establishment of new sales and service centers in Quebec and Canada.”
Having participated in the announcement on Thursday, the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, argued that with its “new state-of-the-art facilities, the company is giving itself the means to remain the leader in Canada in its field.”
The financing includes a refinancing operation worth 30 million. Loans of 40 million through the ESSOR program, administered by Investissement Québec as government agent, and 30 million directly from Investissement Québec’s own funds are granted to Manac.
Desjardins and BDC each grant loans of 50 million.
Manac builds its trailers in three factories in Quebec, one in British Columbia and another in Missouri.
