In brief
- Announced closure of the Mayet (Sarthe) factory by the beginning of 2027.
- A reorganisation affecting 94 employees, with the potential cutting of 51 posts.
The announcement of the planned closure of the Mayet industrial site marks a turning point for the economic fabric of the Sarthe department. This restructuring project comes at a particularly delicate time for the luxury packaging industry, which is facing increased volatility in international markets and order adjustments from major contractors.
- A decision driven by the market slowdown and the decline in activity from major clients such as Gucci.
- Part of the production will be transferred to the second Sarthe site in Cherré-Au.
The decline in activity is mainly explained by the contraction in demand from prestige brands, which are going through a period of inventory adjustment and revision of their sales forecasts. The reduction in volumes ordered by iconic players in haute couture and leather goods, foremost among which is the house of Gucci, directly weakens the financial balance of production sites specialising in exceptional packaging.
The decline in activity of the prestige packaging giant Pusterla 1880 is leading to the planned closure of its Mayet site, in Sarthe, by the beginning of 2027. This industrial downturn spectacularly illustrates the slowdown currently weighing on major players in luxury fashion and beauty. For the former Adine factory, taken over by the Italian group in 2021, the turnaround is proving particularly brutal after years of continuous growth.
Specialising for decades in high-precision cardboard packaging and the manufacture of bespoke gift boxes, the Adine company had built a solid reputation with the most prestigious French and international houses. Its integration into the Pusterla 1880 group in 2021 was intended to open up new development prospects on a global scale. Backing by this international leader in high-end packaging aimed to consolidate its local production facilities while offering it privileged access to the global cosmetics, perfume and spirits markets. However, the rapid deterioration of the global economic climate has thwarted this expansion dynamic.
A recent investment disrupted by the economic climate
The speed with which the situation deteriorated caught off guard a site that had nevertheless been the subject of repeated marks of confidence from its parent company. Just a few months after the acquisition of the Sarthe cardboard manufacturer, significant resources had been mobilised to modernise Mayet’s industrial infrastructure and adapt its equipment to contemporary productivity requirements. This investment effort reflected the group’s strategic desire to make it a centre of excellence for the manufacture of complex gift boxes.
Industrial investments cut short
The Mayet factory, specialising in the manufacture of high-end boxes, gift boxes and cases, nevertheless seemed to be on a promising trajectory. In 2022, just one year after the acquisition of Adine by the Italian group, the Sarthe site had benefited from major investments to accommodate a new production line dedicated to perfume boxes. This deployment aimed to respond to the historic enthusiasm for beauty and fine fragrance products.
The installation of this new equipment aimed to automate certain complex tasks while preserving the artisanal craftsmanship essential for making luxury gift boxes. The fine fragrance and cosmetics sector was experiencing sustained growth rates at the time, pushing packaging manufacturers to increase their production capacities to avoid any disruption in the supply chain of major brands.
However, the economic reality of 2026 has caught up with these ambitions. The Pusterla group, which operates a network of factories in Italy, France, Moldova, the United Kingdom (England, Scotland) and Tunisia, finds itself forced to adjust its European industrial facilities to adapt to a much more cautious global demand.
This multinational presence, which was a major strength during periods of high order growth by allowing the workload to be distributed, becomes a complex challenge to manage in lean times. Manufacturing units spread across the European continent and North Africa find themselves faced with under-utilisation of their machinery. Faced with this dispersion of volumes, the group’s central management is forced to initiate a geographical rationalisation plan to consolidate its production on a limited number of high-performance sites.
The reorganisation plan for the Sarthe employees
The definitive closure of this historic site involves a major human restructuring. Of the 94 employees currently working at the Mayet factory, 51 jobs could be cut as part of this closure project. Trade unions and staff representatives are starting discussions to minimise the social impact of this decision.
The shock is all the more acute for the local employment pool as the Mayet factory is a long-standing industrial employer in the municipality. Negotiations underway between the company’s management and trade unions aim to develop social support measures, such as professional retraining assistance, enhanced voluntary redundancy schemes or early retirement plans for employees closest to the end of their careers.
For the remaining workforce, internal redeployment solutions are being considered. The manufacturer plans to offer the transfer of 43 positions to its other French locations, thereby preserving valuable artisanal craftsmanship within the group.
These transfer proposals are aimed directly at skilled workers, specialised machine operators, maintenance technicians and supervisory teams whose technical expertise is essential to maintaining the quality standards required by the luxury industry. Preserving these rare skills is a crucial challenge for the company, which wishes to avoid the irreversible loss of talent trained over the years on the art cardboard packaging lines.
Pusterla 1880’s strategy in the face of overcapacity
To cope with a structural overcapacity that has become unsustainable, the Pusterla 1880 group must thoroughly review its operating model. Overcapacity occurs when all of a group’s factories have equipment calibrated for high production volumes that no longer correspond to the reality of the orders entered in the order book.
A strategic reorganisation in the face of falling demand
Management explains this choice by an extremely tense market context, characterised by a decline in volumes and structural industrial overcapacity. The drop in demand from the house of Gucci, one of the factory’s main contractors, directly weighed on the economic viability of the Mayet site, precipitating its reorganisation.
Variations in orders from leading fashion brands have an amplified effect on the subcontractor chain. When a major fashion house experiences a slowdown in global sales or undertakes to destock its unused packaging, the impact on orders placed with cardboard manufacturers is immediate and massive. The Mayet factory, highly exposed to these variations in workload linked to the decisions of major players like Gucci, is bearing the full brunt of this volatility in the high-end markets.
By concentrating its forces, the group seeks to optimise its production costs and saturate its other European lines. This decision highlights the fragility of luxury subcontractors in the face of rapid fluctuations in the performance of major fashion houses.
For an industrial group like Pusterla 1880, running half-empty factories entails fixed costs that are incompatible with the sector’s margins. Consolidating machinery and orders on a limited number of sites allows production lines to run at full capacity, thereby ensuring a level of profitability sufficient to finance research, development and the ecological transition of cardboard manufacturing processes.
A concentration of French activities in Cherré-Au
To maintain its regional roots, the Italian group plans to consolidate most of Mayet’s activity at its second Sarthe factory. It is to Cherré-Au, located about 70 kilometres away, that the majority of the 43 retained positions are expected to be transferred. This Sarthe industrial hub will take over the production lines in order to consolidate regional activity.
This geographical choice to consolidate the Sarthe forces in Cherré-Au makes it possible to preserve the group’s presence in the Sarthe department, a territory renowned for its industrial fabric of cardboard packaging and printing. However, the distance of 70 kilometres between Mayet and Cherré-Au represents a logistical and personal challenge for the employees concerned. Geographical mobility support measures and transport solutions will need to be examined during social negotiations to facilitate this transition.
The remaining transferred positions will join the group’s third French factory, located in Oradour-sur-Glane, Haute-Vienne. Thanks to this reorganisation, the manufacturer hopes to overcome this downward cycle while preserving its responsiveness to future orders from major brands.
The Oradour-sur-Glane site, in Haute-Vienne, completes Pusterla’s French industrial setup. By injecting new skills and equipment transferred from Mayet to these two preserved production units, the group seeks to balance its national network. This concentration of industrial resources aims to make Cherré-Au and Oradour-sur-Glane two reinforced pillars, capable of absorbing the future recovery of orders as soon as the global market resumes an upward trajectory.
The industrial challenges of subcontracting in exceptional packaging
The situation experienced by the Mayet site highlights the specific constraints faced by subcontractors specialising in exceptional packaging. Unlike manufacturers of mass-market packaging, luxury cardboard manufacturers operate in a market characterised by extreme aesthetic requirements, sometimes short production runs and particularly rigid execution deadlines imposed by the schedule of collection launches and end-of-year holidays.
This high standard requires continuous investment in production facilities to maintain rigorous precision rates. When order volumes drop sharply, the fixed cost associated with modernising infrastructure becomes difficult to absorb for dedicated factories. The trade-off made by the Pusterla group thus reflects the need for manufacturers in the sector to flexibly calibrate their network in order to absorb variations in luxury cycles without compromising the quality of the finished product.
What this restructuring reveals about the luxury market
The reflection of a global slowdown in the luxury market
The announcement of this closure highlights a sometimes overlooked reality: the dependence of industrial subcontractors on fashion cycles. After the post-pandemic euphoria that had pushed brands to secure their supplies and overstock, the focus is now on inventory rationalisation and budgetary caution.
During the period following the health crisis, the reopening of global boutiques and the resumption of international travel had triggered unprecedented demand for perfume boxes, fine jewellery cases and exceptional packaging. Fearing raw material shortages or supply delays, the giants of the sector had multiplied preventive orders. This overstocking effect maintained an illusion of indefinite growth among cardboard and paper processors, prompting manufacturers to increase their production capacities.
For packaging manufacturers, the challenge is to adapt their production facilities to more fluctuating volumes, while maintaining the high quality standards for which French workshops are renowned. This painful transition for Sarthe bears witness to the end of a cycle of unbridled growth for the entire sector.
The luxury market is now going through a consolidation phase where the normalisation of Chinese and Western consumption is forcing prestige brands to readjust their forecasts. This change of pace at the top of the economic pyramid is cascading down to the entire subcontracting industrial fabric. The restructuring undertaken by the Pusterla 1880 group between Sarthe and Haute-Vienne foreshadows the changes that the entire high-end packaging sector will have to overcome to adapt to growth that has become more selective and more measured.
