Solvay lays off 600 global staff before moving research centre from Paris to Lyon

Belgian chemicals company Solvay has cut hundreds of staff from its plants in France and South America, after its recent spell of division sell-offs.

It also announced a relocation for its research branches from Paris to Lyon and Brussels.

Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, CEO of Solvay, said: “This new step in Solvay's transformation centres on better serving our customers. Over the past six years we built a business portfolio to generate superior and sustainable growth. Now we need to follow through and drastically simplify our organization and processes as well as align all our resources. This will allow Solvay to provide differentiated experiences for customers and maximize value for the Group.”

The group is speaking to trades unions to limit job losses to voluntary redundancies. 160 posts in France, 90 in Portugal and 80 in Brazil are expected to be lost.

500 employees are expected to be relocated from the French capital to its second city Lyon.