Alicoop, which owns the Alisuper, Macral and GeneCo brands, is at risk of closing its doors again if financial support from the Portuguese Office for Support to Small and Medium Enterprises (IAPMEI) is not delivered soon.
After the company ran into financial difficulties in August 2009 with debts amounting to €80 million, Alicoop management and workers developed a recovery plan which was approved by Silves Court in August this year and the company was re-opening its stores in stages.
Under the plan, all the shops should be open and all staff back at work by July 2011, but without the IAPMEI support, Alicoop is still at risk of permanent closure.
IAPMEI, which is responsible for the recovery funding, says it has been delayed “by bureaucratic procedures”.
A spokesman from the Portuguese Syndicate of Workers, Trade and Services, CESP, told Portuguese news agency LUSA that IAPMEI had sent a letter to all concerned saying the process “requires bureaucracies impossible to achieve in time to ensure the viability of the project”.
The management of Alicoop met with CESP and the Unions Syndicate of the Algarve on November 17 at its headquarters in Silves to analyse these new developments.
Despite the gravity of the situation, both Alicoop management and workers said they were optimistic that this situation would be solved.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Alicoop management met with the Secretary of State for Industry and Development, Fernando Medina, on November 21.
