Three well-known business episodes in the same week once again showed the productive contraction and also the need to distinguish different legal situations. The textile company Will Der closed its plants in General Pacheco and Las Flores and laid off 120 workers. Unilever shut down its dehydrated vegetable factory in Guaymallén, Mendoza, affecting 60 jobs. IGT33 S.A., owner of Rever Pass and Be Rebel, entered court-supervised restructuring, a process that seeks to restructure debts and does not automatically imply the closure of the company.
Will Der had accumulated half a century of activity and had come to employ more than 280 people in establishments in General Pacheco, Las Flores, Catamarca, and Malvinas Argentinas. It produced sportswear for international brands. Its partners announced that the available orders were not enough to sustain the closed plants and that part of the demand would only appear in the first months of 2027. The situation regarding severance payments depends on the firm's assets and financial capacity.
IGT33 ended 2025 with sales of ARS 11.814 million, a real decline of 24% from 2024, and a net loss of ARS 4.365 million. Its liabilities exceed ARS 7.000 million, including ARS 3.276 million in bank debt and ARS 1.725 million in social-security and labor obligations. The payment default became evident on May 16, 2026; the court-supervised restructuring opened on July 14, and creditors have until September 23 to file and verify their claims.
Unilever closed a plant that had been operating since 1964 and processed around 15.000 tons of fresh vegetables per year for Knorr products. It was their only vegetable dehydrating facility in the world. The company linked the decision to changes in consumption habits, paid the compensations, and will concentrate the final production in Pilar, Buenos Aires. The raw materials that were previously processed in Mendoza will be purchased from external suppliers, so the closure also changes the local supply chain.
The added context surpasses those three cases. The Monthly Business Monitor of Fundar, prepared with records from Superintendencia de Riesgos del Trabajo, accounted for 30.633 fewer employers between December 2023 and May 2026, equivalent to 6% of the initial universe. Only in May were 2.371 employer deregistrations recorded, about 76 per day. Active employers went from 512.357 in November 2023 to 481.724, the lowest level in almost two decades and below the pandemic floor.
The series accumulated 16 consecutive months of monthly declines and 27 months of year-on-year setbacks. In parallel, ENAC calculated a loss exceeding 411.613 registered positions. Other cases of 2026 included the productive closure of Fate, the end of local manufacturing of Peabody, the restructuring of Granja Tres Arroyos, the exit of Argentine production of Citroën, the closure of Leval, and the definitive announcement of Indumentaria Catamarca. Each case combines different decisions, scales, and labor effects.
Judicial restructuring proceedings also increased. Industriales Pymes Argentinos recorded 190 preventive restructuring cases opened during 2025 in Buenos Aires commercial courts, 131,7% more than in 2023; by June 2026, 132 had already begun. A restructuring can avert bankruptcy if it enables an agreement with creditors, while a production shutdown can occur without corporate dissolution. Monitoring should show how many companies keep operating, preserve jobs or end in liquidation. That sequence avoids applying one label to business processes whose outcomes remain open. Separating deregistered employers, closed factories, production stoppages, restructurings and bankruptcies allows the crisis to be measured without exaggerating or minimizing its scope.
