Carbios announced it is reorganising its workforce as part of cost control measures announced in late December 2024.
The measures will result in the elimination of around 40% of jobs.
In 2023, the French biotech company employed 134 workers. In the first half of 2024, it posted a loss of €18.1 million.
The job cuts will affect positions at Carbios and its subsidiary Carbios 54, whose primary role is to oversee Carbios’ planned depolymerisation plant in Longlaville, France.
Last December, Carbios announced it is postponing construction of the PET depolymerisation plant by six to nine months due to delayed funding.
Nonetheless, the company has reaffirmed its goal to build the plant.
“This reorganisation should contribute to enable Carbios to continue executing its technological, industrial and commercial strategy, as well as cautiously managing its solid cash position (€107m as of 31 December 2024) by reducing the Group's cash burn,” the company said in a statement. “Carbios is focussed towards achieving its objectives of signing its first commercial contracts during the first half of 2025 and towards securing financing to continue the construction of its first PET biorecycling plant in Longlaville.”
Carbios broke ground on the facility, totted as the world’s first PET biorecycling plant, in April 2024.
It obtained non-dilutive funding of €30 million under the France 2030 programme, which aims to stimulate employment, boost productivity and increase the competitiveness of French businesses. The company said the subsidy has been approved but its release is pending authorisation by the European Commission.
The biotech company is also waiting on €12.5 million from the Grand Est Region, where the plant is located.
Carbios said in a statement that its negotiations with Indorama Ventures are not yet finalised. In June 2023, the companies signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form a joint venture to build the plant. According to the terms of the MOU, Indorama Ventures will mobilise about €110 million for the joint venture in equity and non-convertible loan financing, pending final engineering documentation and final economic feasibility studies.
The total capital investment for the new plant is re-estimated to be around €230 million, considering recent impact from inflation.