Sophia: Thales Microsonics hit by a reorganisation plan

The telecom pole of Thales reorganised: two out of six sites closed; 570 posts lost over 1.750. Sophia is preserved but hit by the staff reduction.

After Lucent and Nortel, another big company of Sophia Antipolis is hit by a reorganisation plan: Thales Microsonics. This unit in Sophia Antipolis belongs to one of the three subsidiaries of Thales IT & S, the information technology and service subsidiaries of the electronic defence French giant, which CEO, Denis Ranque, has announced the reorganisation yesterday. This cost rationalisation operation in Thales’ telecom pole results from the recent publication of results of the last quarter. The figures had clearly shown a large depression in the telecom market.Two kinds of measure have been announced. The first one: a reorganisation of industrial means in the microelectronic industry with the closure of two sites. At the moment, the industrial means are shared between six sites. The three subsidiaries of Thales IT & S (Thales Microwave, Thales Microelectronics and Thales Microsonics) are set up in France in Sophia Antipolis, Massy (Essone), Argenté-du-Plessis (Morbihan) and Châteaubourg (Bretagne) as well as in Scotland, in Edinburgh and in Morocco, in Casablanca. The production lines in Massy and Argenté-du-Plessis will be closed and transferred over the four other sites among which Sophia Antipolis.Second measure: the loss of 570 posts over the 1.750 ones of the three subsidiaries. The company will lay off employees at Thales Microwave in Massy, Thales Microelectronics in Argenté-du-Plessis and Thales Microsonics in Sophia. Specific dispositions have been set up “to control the social consequences of this plan”, the group has declared. Thus, 370 employees will benefit from post proposals within Thales in their current job area and 70 employees will be hired out of their current job area or out of Thales. Moreover, 80 early-retirement should be proposed and around fifty contacts for a fixed term (CDD) will not be renewed.In Sophia, Thales Microsonics (former Thomson Microsonics) has just finished the construction of a second building (an investment of more than 120 million francs) and employs around 400 people. The unit in Sophia Antipolis creates components for the mobile telephony of the third generation and has developed an activity in the sector of the medical sound (echographia). The assembling of boxes coming from the white rooms is mainly realised in Casablanca.