“I’m opening a collection of energy bills grouped together in an imposing package destined for… the Élysée! This is how on Tuesday, on his Facebook page, an entrepreneur from Burgundy, undermined by rising prices, announced his desire to send Emmanuel Macron his energy bills and those of other angry bosses.
“Hello, I am Arnaud Lhermite, director of a boilermaking/sheet metal working company on a human scale since 2009 located in the heart of Burgundy,” writes the boss of L’Atelier des Trois Mondes. “Like you, my company is suffering, powerless, from the rise in the price of electricity. What to do ? Pass on the increase to our selling prices and lose customers? Reduce our consumption, therefore stop machines, therefore reduce orders, therefore reduce the team? “Adds the entrepreneur before launching” a national rant “.
“If they do nothing, we close”
“According to our extrapolations, my electricity bill will be multiplied by six this year, from 26,000 euros in 2022 to 151,000 this year. And it is by stopping the most energy-consuming machines and working at night when electricity is cheaper, ”explains to AFP the Burgundy boss who manages two sites in Saône-et-Loire and one in Yonne.
“It’s not viable,” says the entrepreneur, referring to a loss of 27,000 euros in January when the company normally makes a profit of around 40,000 euros per year, for an annual turnover of 800,000 euro.
“If they do nothing, we close,” launches Arnaud Lhermite, believing that the “shock absorber” put in place by the government for SMEs, which this boss is not sure he can benefit from, would not alleviate any way his bill only 20%. “It does not stop the company from stopping,” he said, calling instead for a tariff shield, as there are for households.
The entrepreneur, who therefore calls on his colleagues to “join the collective #industriesoushautetension”, admits that he has not “yet received many invoices” for the moment.