Cost-cutting Renault aims to shrink Paris region office space by half

PARIS (Reuters) -French carmaker Renault said on Wednesday it was considering cutting back on the real estate it occupies in the Paris region by 50% by 2025, a move that could save at least 60 million euros ($51.22 million), a spokesperson said.

The property shift, affecting both offices it rents and owns, would affect white collar workers at the company in the Ile-de-France, and not engineering sites, the spokesperson added.

The plans were presented to unions this week, and come as loss-making Renault tries to slash costs and jumpstart revenues under Chief Executive Luca de Meo.

It is trimming jobs in France too, and has also been restructuring its factories.

The group's Ile-de-France offices are spread around about a dozen sites, and Renault aims to eventually centre all its office workers around its historical headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt and another site further west.

Some 20% of its office space in the region was already unoccupied before the COVID-19 pandemic, when the company also brought in measures allowing people to partly work from home, the spokesperson said.

($1 = 1.1714 euros)

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, Writing by Sarah White; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)