Serra Soldadura sells a subsidiary at auction but saves only 10 of the 190 jobs

BarcelonaThe Basque group Aernnova has sold one of the two company branches of Serra Soldadura at auction, the Barcelona industrial company it has owned since 2008 and for which it has filed for voluntary liquidation. According to the works councils of Serra Soldadura, the sale will only serve to safeguard 10 of the 190 jobs the company has.

Specifically, in a judicially supervised auction, Serra UNP —a manufacturer of resistance welding equipment— was the company sold, while the other branch of the company in Spanish territory, Serra AUTO, has not been awarded to any new buyer, according to a statement from the representatives of the workforce of the company based in the Zona Franca. In this statement, the works councils have considered that "Serra UNP has been poorly sold" and have expressed "disappointment" that the management of Aernnova has not offered "a joint solution for the two companies of the Serra group".

A first auction to transfer the company was left vacant, so that the insolvency administratorIn total, Serra Soldadura, based in the Zona Franca of Barcelona, has about 200 workers (to which another 300 indirect jobs must be added) and is a supplier to multinationals such as Stellantis, Ebro, or Airbus. Aernnova filed for liquidation in March due to high indebtedness. A first auction to transfer the company was left without a buyer, so the insolvency administrator approved an extension of one week after Aernnova, the Generalitat, and the insolvency administrator itself announced that there were potential interested buyers. Thus, last Friday, June 5, the second auction took place, which ended with the sale of one of the two companies that make up the group.

The works councils, in addition to blaming Aernnova's management for the company's situation, have lashed out at the insolvency administrator, who they say is "satisfied to have fulfilled his mission, which was to liquidate Serra Soldadura". The union representatives demand that the administrator recover "the maximum amount invoiced" to clients in order to "help pay the debt to the accumulated mass, whose main creditor is the Serra workforce". "More than two-thirds of Serra's workforce remain at home and unpaid, through paid leave ordered by the insolvency administrator as a cost-saving measure," the statement recalls.