Within the Paul-Boyé company, specializing in defense equipment, which produces FFP2 masks and surgical masks.

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B. Colin / 20 Minutes

  • The Paul-Boyé Technologies company, located in the Toulouse suburbs, relaunched its production of masks a year ago with the coronavirus epidemic.

  • Today, 600,000 surgical masks or FFP2 come out of its ten production lines every day.

  • With the new mistrust aroused by handmade masks, among others, sales to individuals have soared in recent days on its online sales site.

Barely a year ago, the production of FFP2 masks and surgical masks was slowing down at the Paul-Boyé factory in Labarthe-sur-Lèze, south of Toulouse.

Only two production lines were active, France having since 2015 favored the import of Chinese masks rather than ordering them from French companies specializing in safety equipment.

While during the previous decade, 350 million FFP2 had left the Haut-Garonnaise plant.

“When the crisis started, at the end of January 2020, we were alerted to the need for masks.

We then restarted our lines of FFP2 masks and we reassembled those that we had stored for years in a garage ”, remembers Jacques Boyé, the grandson of Paul Boyé, a tailor who founded the company in 1904. Today, it produces both French military uniforms and those of the National Guard.

Diamond masks, not duckbills

To cope with the crazy demand for masks at the height of the crisis, the company bought a new line to complete its offer and hired 100 people to take care of it until 24 hours a day at the peak of activity.

To make them work, it even tried to tap into the pool of maintenance agents in the Toulouse aeronautics sector, struggling with the drop in air traffic.

Today, the Labarthe-sur-Lèze site has ten lines on which 600,000 FFP2 masks are produced every day, in the shape of a diamond - and not a duckbill - as well as surgical masks.

“We invested in a building and we had to push the walls,” recalls the CEO.

Since March, his company has released 60 million masks, including 35 million FFP2, sold on the French market.

Renewed interest from individuals

The State, through Public Health France, has placed an order for 60 million masks to be supplied over one year.

Jacques Boyé does not hide that he would have liked the public authorities to commit themselves over several years, which would have enabled him to invest in the production of raw materials and to control his production chain from A to Z in Occitanie.

Today, his order book is full for six months.

In the meantime, for a good week, he can count on individuals to run his machines.

Mistrust of "homemade" fabric masks and the German government's announcement making FFP2 compulsory in public transport have had an impact on the sales of the website.

“In 48 hours, online orders have increased tenfold.

We register 3,000 to 5,000 orders for boxes of 50 masks per day, ”says the business manager.

Invested in research and development, the family company decided to embark on the creation of a biocidal FFP2 mask.

Today, the tests are being finalized and it should be marketed during the first half of 2021.

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