Solar Profit has announced an Employment Regulation File (ERE) to lay off 90% of its workforce, a measure that will affect 405 of the 450 people employed by this solar panel company.
The cut comes after the ERE in September – which affected 275 people, 30% of the total – and after the departure of 200 people, “who have taken voluntary resignations and individual dismissals over the last few months”, say sources from the company founded by Roger Fernández and Óscar Gómez.
Based in Llinars del Vallès and listed on the BME Growth, Solar Profit justifies the layoffs due to the drop in demand for the installation of solar panels in homes and companies. “The moderation in electricity prices and the lower disposable income derived from the increase in inflation and interest rates, as well as the strong increase in competition, has created a complex and very demanding environment,” the company argued when announcing his first ERE. At the end of the 2023 financial year, the turnover stood at 66 million and the gross losses (ebitda) were -33 million euros.
Today, in the statement issued to BME Growth, Solar Profit has recognized that “the dynamics of the business have continued to worsen during the first quarter of 2024.” Meanwhile, stock market investors have disinvested in the company and have made the share fall by 41%, reaching 0.47 euros. This value, at a minimum, comes after an accumulated drop of 46% over the last year. These are data that are far from the day of its stock market debut, in December 2021, when the company was experiencing full growth due to the boom in photovoltaic energy in homes.
With the ERE at 90% of the workforce and the maintenance of 45 jobs, Solar Profit wants to guarantee the future of the business by cutting expenses and changing the business model. In this sense, it will abandon the assembly of the solar panels itself, so it will subcontract this activity to third-party companies and will focus on the design of the facilities.
Furthermore, in the statement, the company points out the need to refinance the debt with a plan different from that proposed by financial entities since, according to what it indicates, Solar Profit would be open to the entry of funds to recapitalize the company. According to the financial report for the first half of 2023, the last available, Solar Profit accumulates a liability of 58 million euros against financial entities, suppliers and other creditors
