photo: L’Echo
With the costs of maintaining the ovens at Belgian glassmaker Durobor at €100,000 per day and no buyer yet materializing, the Belgian news has reported that SOGEPA, the regional economic development agency has decided to stop the stand-by feeding of the oven. The oven, which was kept on standby with the help of twenty temporary workers, will be now be stopped.
For SOGEPA, this does not mean that the buyer quest stops. Several contacts had been made and negotiations had even been launched with three prospective buyers: an investment fund linked to a Middle East country (Qatar), a European industrial player and an Israeli private investment fund. And so, as far as is possible to do so, the furnace will be stopped via a procedure that does not endanger a possible restart should a buyer deal for the Durobor factory be consummated.
Durobor still employed some 140 people. In addition to the search for a buyer, SOGEPA and the municipal authorities are continuing their studies with a view to redeveloping the industrial site.
So, it appears for the moment that future prospects for the Durobor brand have indeed dimmed.
