- A mask production plant closed two years ago in Plaintel, in the Côtes d'Armor due to the relocation of the site.
- The former plant manager wants to restart production, which will take "at least eighteen months".
- The Brittany region and the Côtes d'Armor department support the initiative but ask the State and Europe to commit to orders to make the site sustainable.
Will the Plaintel mask manufacturing plant rise from the ashes? Not impossible. Less than two years after the closure of the Côtes d'Armor site by the American group Honeywell, many people are mobilizing to relaunch the production of a site that manufactured tens of millions of masks per year. Starting with the former site director Jean-Jacques Fuan, who is thinking about setting up a new structure. The Brittany region and the Côtes d'Armor have confirmed their interest in this project and "confirm their availability". However, local authorities are asking for "clear commitments" from the State and from Europe "to guarantee the future of such a site".
Everyone agrees that the closure of the Plaintel factory is "an industrial waste". The takeover of the site by the American group Honeywell is even experienced as a betrayal by the former employees, who saw their jobs being relocated to Tunisia and their machines being dismantled and sold to scrap dealers. Less than two years later, the closure of the site took on a particular echo, while France is struggling to obtain masks to protect itself from the coronavirus. President Emmanuel Macron's stated desire to “relocate” production to France to avoid dependence on the Chinese market has only reinforced this feeling. "It is not up to us to redo the match, whatever we think of this industrial mess," says Loïg Chesnais-Girard.
"A beautiful project that speaks to Bretons"
Associated with the president of the departmental council of Côtes d'Armor Alain Cadec, the president of the Brittany region says "share the wish" to see the industry relocate on its territory and confirms "the availability to study any project". “Mask making in Plaintel is a beautiful project that speaks to the Bretons. But our responsibility is to ensure the viability of the project, beyond the crisis, to avoid driving the actors into a dead end. "
The elected socialist warns on the other hand of the need to obtain "long-term strategic orders" in particular from the European Union and the State. "Contacts have been made in recent days on this point," said the region. The community has also appointed former Secretary of State Guy Hascoët as head of this recovery mission. Strongly mobilized to produce masks ordered by the Minister of Health Roselyne Bachelot during the H1N1 flu, the Plaintel site had turned its back on its private customers to meet public demand. But when the state disengaged, the factory quickly declined until it closed in 2018.
According to former director Jean-Jacques Fuan, relaunching a factory will take "at least eighteen months", the site having been sold and the machines having disappeared. "We cannot restart a factory that no longer exists," recalled the mayor of Plaintel Joseph Le Vée.
Society
Coronavirus in Brittany: "Sacrificed" in 2018, can the mask manufacturing factory be resuscitated?
Culture
The singer Christophe is in intensive care in Brest
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Society
- Relocation
- Economy
- Roselyne Bachelot
- Reindeer