French champagne house Piper Heidsieck announced Friday it would cut a quarter of its staff in France after the recession caused a sharp drop in sales. Revenues have dropped 42 percent since March last year at the champagne house that specialises in high-end bubbly and also caters to airline companies and supermarket chains.
A total of 45 jobs, mostly in production, will be slashed from the 160 employees at Piper Heidsieck in Reims, the capital of Champagne country. Piper Heidsieck president Anne Charlotte Amory acknowledged that last year's global economic crisis had hit sales hard and said the company now planned to restrict its production to high-end champagnes.
"Piper Heidsieck is the first to be badly hit by the crisis. The last layoffs date back to 1992. It really is quite hard," said William Mailly, a representative of the employees. Owned by the Remy Cointreau group, Piper Heidsieck produces 9.0 million bottles of Champagne per year, most of which is for export. In 2009, it posted a turnover of 138 million euros (189 million dollars).
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