At the border of the Vosges mountains, you have to be breathless to follow Pierre Schmitt, the boss of the Velcorex-Emmanuel Lang group, when he surveys his factories located on several hectares in Saint-Amarin in the Haut-Rhin department.

In these vast premises, dozens of machines, sometimes over 70 meters long, cut, desize, dry, brush, bleach or dye fabrics.

These mechanical and electronic jewels were kept in extremis when this 68-year-old entrepreneur took over former local textile companies, which were on the verge of liquidation in the early 2010s.

By dint of wanting to control the entire production chain, his group has succeeded, almost 20 years after the relocation of the last French flax mills, to bring back machines from Hungary to reopen one in Hirsingue (Haut-Rhin) in 2020 .

"Today we are the only ones who can say that linen, itself produced in France, is spun at home, woven at home, and ennobled at home," he says with satisfaction.

A worker checks the flexibility of the fibers in the flax spinning factory in Hirsingue (Haut-Rhin), November 8, 2021. SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP

The very first collection resulting from this entirely French production, with jeans, jackets, and trousers in linen velvet, is presented at the Made in France fair in Paris, until November 14.

"Innovation ecosystem"

Beyond his group, which now employs 150 people and continues to recruit, Pierre Schmitt is delighted to see the sector structured in France: the country is the world's leading producer of textile flax, and has, with the company Schlumberger , based in Guebwiller (Haut-Rhin), the world leader in the manufacture of machines for long fibers (flax, hemp, wool and nettles).

A worker checks the quality of a thread in the Hirsingue (Haut-Rhin) flax spinning factory, November 8, 2021. SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP

In Alsace, the group intends to mobilize textile engineering schools, created at the time of the industrial revolution, to develop research projects.

"Proximity is the essential condition for creating an innovation ecosystem. This is what we are doing", assures Pierre Schmitt.

"I am convinced that we will soon be able to file patents."

Its ambition is to design new materials: mixed with resins, textile fibers can replace certain plastics, petroleum derivatives as well as glass and carbon fibers.

"Fiberglass has no flexibility, it is inert, it breaks at the slightest impact," explains Christian Didier, director of the Emmanuel Lang subsidiary.

"While linen has several advantages: it is lighter, it is recyclable, and it absorbs shocks".

Pierre Schmitt, the boss of Velcorex, poses in his flax spinning factory in Hirsingue (Haut-Rhin), November 8, 2021. SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP

There are many applications for these composite materials.

The company will participate in the making of the hull of Roland Jourdain's boat for the next Vendée-Globe.

An automobile manufacturer is interested in manufacturing the rigid elements of the dashboard of its vehicles.

And other uses, in the thermal and sound insulation of buildings, are also being considered.

"We would need the banks"

To carry out all these projects, the group seeks to project itself over the "long term", but is still struggling to raise the necessary funds for its investments.

"It is certain that the lack of means slowed us down, we have already lost two to three years", estimates Pierre Schmitt, who had mortgaged his house to finance the first activities of the group.

A worker controls the flax lines in the Hirsingue (Haut-Rhin) flax spinning factory, November 8, 2021. SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP

His group is looking for 10 million euros for new developments, and is developing alternative solutions: crowdfunding has been launched and a budget of 2.6 million euros has been obtained from the State as part of the relaunch.

Insufficient aid, however, to make ends meet.

"To complete the financing, we would need the banks, but as the companies that we have taken over have lost money in the past, and that in addition it is the textile sector, we have two enormous prejudices which play in our disadvantage ", regrets the boss who is considering soliciting foreign donors.

© 2021 AFP