For French firms, a foggy begin to 2025 | EUROtoday

For companies, 2025 doesn’t open below the perfect auspices. The unprecedented uncertainties over the fiscal and budgetary framework opened up by the episode of the dissolution, then the censorship of the Barnier authorities, haven’t been dissipated. Demand, each from companies and households, suffers from this lack of visibility. The German recession is placing a damper on the exercise of its European companions. The upcoming arrival of Donald Trump on the White House is fraught with threats for exporters. In brief, “what’s missing is a shock of confidence”summarized, Thursday January 9, Philippe Mutricy, director of research at Bpifrance, on the event of the publication of the general public financial institution’s half-yearly financial survey amongst VSE-SMEs.

The post-Covid-19 provide issues or the recruitment difficulties of 2022-2023 are actually far behind. According to this survey, carried out amongst 5,000 firms, the primary concern of enterprise leaders pertains to exercise, notably in trade, tourism or commerce, as a result of sluggish demand.

François Thuilleur, CEO of the Paredes-Orapi group, which produces and distributes hygiene merchandise for shoppers in a number of sectors, sees the purple flashers lighting up on all sides. “Public hospitals, one of our biggest customers, no longer have any budget at all and are destocking, he explains. The 2,300 nursing homes that we provide are in serious financial difficulty. The agri-food industry, which suffered a contraction in its sales, responded with a hiring freeze and interrupted temporary contracts: that means less protective and hygiene equipment. Cleaning companies fear the reduction in charges on low wages, and therefore reduce their costs…”

Projects on the decline

Faced with a drop in demand of round 8% to 10%, the Paredes-Orapi group has chosen to not change sure pure departures amongst its 1,200 staff in France this 12 months, and all funding initiatives, with out being postponed or canceled, suffered a blow. A normal pattern: in 2024, 43% of the businesses surveyed say they’ve invested, in comparison with 46% in 2023. And the initiatives for 2025 are on a downward pattern.

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