INTERVIEW
Like many textile companies, the Norman manufacturer Saint James is mobilized against the coronavirus. Famous for its marinière and its sweaters, Saint James launched out in the production of protective masks out of fabric. But in the face of growing demand, the company had to be flexible and inventive. "Since last Thursday we have been producing masks intended for companies that return to work or for communities that want to equip the population", explains to the microphone of Europe 1 Luc Le Sénécal, the CEO of Saint James.
Or a request for 12 million masks. "We had a daily production with our seamstresses of the order of 2,000 to 3,000 masks, which is largely insufficient compared to the high demand", explains Luc Le Sénécal.
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Achieve 30,000 masks per day
"We had an idea: thanks to the solidarity network of the textile network we put in place a new mask (approved by the Directorate General of Armament, editor's note ) which allows mounting at home", continues this manager of business. "We had 150 Saint James workers on partial unemployment. Since Thursday, we have been training them to work from home and mount these knitted masks in three dimensions."
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"The objective is to increase production capacity by ten," says Luc Le Sénécal. Saint James thus hopes, by the middle of the week, to be able to produce approximately 30,000 masks per day.