The auction for the sale of Blutec Lighting of Asti went empty, from 2019 in extraordinary administration. The announcement promoted by the Commissioners of the Mise expired on 11 March: no one has come forward for the company that designs and manufactures lighting systems for prominent customers in the automotive sector, such as Stellantis, Iveco, the Canadian group Magna-Olsa.
The binding offer
The “binding and irrevocable” offer should have included the building in Cascina Cauda street, the plants, the brands (“Eurowelde” and “Ages Illuminazione”), the existing contracts and safeguard all jobs, 110 in Asti, 6 in Rivoli where the administrative offices are located. «The outcome of the tender is a disappointment for everyone – comments the secretary of the Film CISL, Salvatore Pafundi – but the situation is not desperate, the commissioners have assured us that the announcement will be repeated. Between December and January some groups interested in the reality of Asti came forward, the sudden outbreak of the war in Ukraine was a cold shower also for investors ».
According to rumors, potential buyers, in addition to monitoring international scenarios, would be waiting to evaluate the next moves of Stellantis in Italy, in particular the industrial plans for the plants served by the Asti company.
To date, the plant is working at full capacity: “The workforce has been strengthened with a dozen temporary workers also to make up for some delays accumulated in recent months due to the lack of raw materials, plastic in particular – he reports Andrea Franzoso, Cisl official – the increase in costs was absorbed without repercussions from customers. The redundancy fund launched as a precaution when the company entered extraordinary administration has never been used “.
On 24 March the extraordinary commissioners Andrea Filippo Bucarelli, Giuseppe Glorioso and Fabrizio Grasso will meet the workers’ representatives to the Ministry of Economic Development “but it has already been anticipated that the call for tenders will certainly be published again by the summer”.
Some adjustments could be made but the offer selection criteria they should reflect the priorities already indicated: the best safeguarding of employment levels, the soundness of the industrial plan, the realizable value of the business complex. The industrial center will remain on the territory and the activities will continue with the obligation to maintain the employment level for at least two years (Marzano Law).
The Blutec Group under extraordinary administration also has the former Fiat plant in Termini Imerese in its belly, where an industrial conversion project has been launched. —