Renault to restructure French factories in high-stakes reboot plan

PARIS (Reuters) – French carmaker Renault said on Friday it was launching talks with unions to reorganise and cease assembling vehicles at several plants in France as it cuts some 15,000 jobs worldwide and tries to refocus to survive a slump in sales.

Faced with a downturn in demand compounded by the coronavirus crisis, Renault is aiming to find 2 billion euros ($2.22 billion) in savings over the next three years as it shrinks production and hones in on more profitable models.

It said the restructuring measures – including the job cuts, transfers and retirement plans that would affect just under 10% of its global workforce – would cost 1.2 billion euros.

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume and Sarah White; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta/Matthieu Protard)