Renault to Lay Off 300 Workers at Van Factory Amid Market Slowdown
PARIS (Reuters) - Renault Group will cut 300 jobs at a van factory in northern France, the carmaker said on Tuesday, responding to slowing European demand for commercial vehicles in the face of growing economic uncertainty.
The French company, which is the European van market leader under its Renault brand, makes about 14% of its sales from the vehicles used by delivery companies and tradesmen.
The factory in Sandouville in Normandy employs 1,700 full-time workers and 600 interim staff. A Renault spokeswoman said that 300 of the interim staff will not have their contracts renewed when they expire.
In January it said it would not renew 700 temporary jobs at another van plant in Moselle in the northeast, partly to adjust to the ramping up of a new model.
Speaking to French radio BFM Business late on Monday, Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said the start of the year had been "a bit difficult" for commercial vehicles.
"It's related firstly to the general economy, which currently is not the happiest that we've known," he said.
The European light commercial vehicle market's sales volumes in January and February declined by 14.9% and 9.2% respectively from a year earlier, Renault estimates show.
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Writing by Dominique Patton; Editing by David Goodman)
