Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister Delegate in charge of Industry, announced Thursday noon that the Japanese industrialist Bridgestone was closing its site in Béthune, in Pas-de-Calais.
The rescue plan for 863 people will not take place.
Bridgestone management has "closed the door" to a rescue plan for its Béthune plant in Pas-de-Calais and "closed the site" which employs 863 people, the Minister of Industry said Thursday, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
The minister was leaving a meeting in Béthune with the management of Bridgestone, elected officials and the unions, to take stock of the project proposed by Bercy to rescue the tire production site.
Alternative project rejected
The Minister of Industry had already gone to Béthune on November 6, where she had partially reassured employees.
She had indeed indicated to them that the State was ready to take its part in financing the investment of a hundred million euros necessary for the alternative project to close the site.
Considered by the firm Accenture, mandated by Bercy to study these alternative scenarios, this project aimed to equip the plant in order to produce 1.3 million tires per year by 2025, of higher quality than small caliber ones. currently manufactured in Béthune.
But the European management of the Japanese group therefore decided not to give a favorable follow-up to this project.
Political struggle
The announcement in mid-September of the Japanese tire giant's desire to close its Béthune plant in 2021 had sparked a political upheaval, the government committing to "second-guess" the scenario that led to this project. .