Image dating from 2005 of the factory for manufacturing protective masks in Plaintel. The factory closed in 2018. - F. Dufour / AFP

The closed factory will revive well. And maybe even multiply. Closed in 2018 to be relocated to Tunisia, the former mask production site of Plaintel, in the Côtes d'Armor, should be well restored. Led by former site director Jean-Jacques Fuan, the revival project took on a new dimension on Tuesday. Helped by the Costa Rican deputy Marc Le Fur, the entrepreneur announces that the Swiss investor Abdallah Chatila will give 15 million euros to create a factory in Ploufragan, a few kilometers from Plaintel.

The wealthy Lebanese investor promises that the site could be operational in early 2021 and produce up to 250,000 million masks a year to fight the spread of the coronavirus. A figure that makes you dizzy. And who surprised the president of the Brittany region, who discovered this announcement in the press. Loïg Chesnais-Girard said he was "amazed at the commitment of this industrialist". The elected socialist would have had no contact with the investor who would have yet acted the purchase of the site of Chaffoteaux and Mory, closed since 2013 and renamed Genesis Baie d'Armor. "Of course if this project is viable and it allows the development of employment in Côtes d'Armor, it will be viewed very positively".

Coronavirus in Brittany: "Sacrificed" in 2018, can the mask manufacturing factory be resuscitated? https://t.co/REDVjUF0az via @ 20minutesRennes pic.twitter.com/V1IgwrIVSF

- 20 Minutes Rennes (@ 20minutesrennes) April 2, 2020

But the method questions. Because according to the president of the region, another cooperative project is still under consideration "to allow a sustainable production of masks on the territory of Saint-Brieuc Agglomeration". Supported by alumni from the Plaintel factory and players in the health, medico-social, agrifood, construction and naval sectors, the project could start in four to six months and generate ten jobs . Twenty million masks could be produced there. But can this small project be serviced with the arrival of a juggernaut like the one carried by the Swiss investor? Doubt is allowed.

And what about Emmanuel Macron's promises to associate the State with the revival of the Costa Rican business? Will it support a private project led by a millionaire? Or a smaller cooperative project?

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  • Covid 19
  • Confinement
  • Coronavirus
  • Society
  • Reindeer
  • Emmanuel Macron
  • Protection
  • Saint Brieuc