Clermont-Ferrand (AFP)
The Michelin tire group is inaugurating its renovated headquarters on Monday, Place des Carmes in Clermont-Ferrand, a symbol of maintaining its "anchoring" in its city of origin, according to its president Florent Menegaux.
The brand new new reception has a 160-meter-long facade, glazed and lined with imposing wooden canopies made from Douglas fir from Corrèze.
Inside, the bright lobby has a central staircase leading to the upper floors with meeting rooms and flexible spaces.
The rubber greenhouse, open to visitors, has been preserved and a café also open to the public has emerged.
"This new reception building is a symbolic place of the opening of Michelin and its anchoring in its territory," Florent Menegaux told AFP ahead of this inauguration.
"We needed to have a seat at the height of what Michelin represents, which makes France shine and makes Clermont-Ferrand known throughout the world," he continued.
The group with 123,000 employees "continues to invest in its region and in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Its headquarters are in the provinces, in the territories, and will continue to be," he added.
The company is one of the few in the CAC 40 to maintain its headquarters, where more than 3,000 employees work, in the provinces.
The renovated Michelin headquarters, September 9, 2021 in Clermont-Ferrand Thierry ZOCCOLAN AFP
The site benefited from a budget of 20 million euros financed by Michelin, while the group had announced a competitiveness plan at the start of the year providing for the elimination of 2,300 jobs over three years, in particular in Clermont-Ferrand.
“There are phases of contraction, but also phases of expansion. Michelin is investing heavily to redeploy its Cataroux site in the city center, through an ambitious project articulated around four poles: education-training, sustainable materials- biotech, innovation and finally a cultural, sport and health center open to the city ", noted the president of the group.
At the same time, the metropolis of Clermont-Ferrand has redeveloped the Place des Carmes, where the emblematic headquarters is located, for 11.8 million euros, with green spaces, a water wall and several fountains.
The reception hall of the renovated Michelin headquarters, September 9, 2021 in Clermont-Ferrand Thierry ZOCCOLAN AFP
"This renovation is part of an intelligent dialogue with the company, which wanted to renew its headquarters. It says something about the new way of conceiving the urbanity and the environmental transition of the city", underlined the mayor of Clermont- Ferrand Olivier Bianchi.
© 2021 AFP