INTERVIEW
Faced with the shortage of masks, and while Emmanuel Macron called on Tuesday to "produce more" in France, many entrepreneurs are helping out at the local level. This is the case of Charles Yvon, CEO of the company "Le parapluie de Cherbourg", which manufactures umbrellas and whose name obviously refers to the famous film by Jacques Demy. Noting the growing demand for masks in his region, he decided to create sewing kits which he distributed to volunteers who then took care of making masks at their homes. Invited from Europe 1, the manager reviews this solidarity initiative.
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"It is not a business", assures Charles Yvon at the microphone of Europe 1, "but an activity nearby and entirely voluntary, to respond to the shortage of masks, especially for caregivers around Cherbourg".
"It takes ten minutes for the fastest to make a mask"
The company therefore imagined sewing kits for making your mask yourself, because its 22 employees would not have been enough to start mass production. "I said to myself: 'people are at home, and at the factory, we have what it takes to cut the fabric, elastics, etc.'," explains Charles Yvon.
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"We give kits that make 20 masks, I will deliver the people and collect the masks two or three days later", continues the guest from Europe 1, who is responsible for delivering both liberal nurses and retirement homes or medical practices. And if the volunteers need a little time to adapt, "when the helping hand comes, it takes 10 minutes for the fastest to make a mask," says Charles Yvon. In total, "several hundred" masks are produced every day.
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To build the kits when faced with a shortage of fabric, the company "Le parapluie de Cherbourg" was able to count on the help of another local company which notably supplied it with polycotton, which is the fabric inside the mask, against the skin. Currently, masks are offered in "twenty colors and ten models, to best match the circumstances and the people who use them," said Charles Yvon.