Michelin has restructured worldwide in order to boost growth, improve the company’s reactivity and maintain competitiveness, enabling it to smoothly meet future challenges. The transformation will also reinforce both the company’s international scope and its France-based sites, notably Clermont-Ferrand.
Under the reorganization 10 new regions will be given more operational responsibilities in terms of sales development and customer relationship management. A total of 14 business lines will develop offers for each customer category. Eight operational divisions are to provide expertise and support for the regions and business lines: R&D; service technology development; manufacturing; supply chain; marketing and sales support; purchasing; operations quality assurance; and corporate and business services. The company will also establish a focused corporate group.
Implementing this new organization will greatly impact jobs in the USA and France only. In the USA, the number of jobs will be reduced by approximately 450 in central functions between 2018 and 2021. The large majority will result from natural attrition and retirement – 1,500 employees would leave the company in the same period.
Concerning France, the transformation coincides with a natural phenomenon, a significantly rejuvenated workforce. By 2021, 5,000 employees will leave the group in France, the majority due to retirement, and around 2,000 of these are expected to be in Clermont-Ferrand.
To this end, Michelin France plans to: recruit more than 3,500 people externally in France by 2021, including 1,000 in Clermont-Ferrand; start new activities in Clermont-Ferrand and other sites in France, creating 250 new jobs, including highly qualified roles, particularly in the fields of high-technology materials and digital; set up a voluntary early retirement package for waged employees and managers at the Clermont-Ferrand site; and progressively reach the target size of the future organizations, without forced redundancies.
To achieve this, the company will: not replace 970 retirees, between now and 2021 in Clermont-Ferrand; and will offer a position and career track in the new organization, by supporting job evolution via an adapted management and training system.
June 29, 2017
