Caroline Baudry, edited by Laura Laplaud 07:05, December 05, 2022

In a period of high energy inflation, company bills exploded.

To cope with this, the Normandy region offers its companies an aid system.

Aid can be combined with that offered today by the State, considered illegible by many industries.

Europe 1 visited the Waltersperger glass factory in the Bresle valley.

This is a first and it is information Europe 1. Faced with the explosion of energy prices, the Normandy region - the first industrial region in France by the share of industry in GDP - offers a " Energy Pack", a business aid scheme.

Aid can be combined with that offered today by the State, considered illegible by many companies.

Located in the Bresle valley, also known as the "glass valley", the Waltersperger glassworks, faced with the explosion of production costs, intends to benefit from it.

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An invoice multiplied by three to ten times

"Glass furnaces are generally gas-fired. We will be on bills that will be multiplied by three to ten times compared to last year!"

exclaims Stéphanie Tourres, manager of this small brick factory.

The seven ovens of her company hum 24 hours a day. Thousands of bottles, in glass and crystal, are molded every week for Louis Vuitton, Dior, Channel... A 100-year-old luxury job, for which she draws today in its treasury. 

"We were not able to be eligible for this state system in relation to energy. So, if we can benefit from support from the region to help us precisely to see things clearly, to know what are the devices to which we can be eligible and to do what, that's really important", she explains at the microphone of Europe 1.

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“We will try to be by your side”

This is exactly what the President of Normandy, Hervé Morin, is proposing: examine the situation of each company that comes forward, and if it does not have access to state aid or that it is insufficient, the region takes over.

"We will help you with your investments to improve the energy efficiency of your production. We will finance zero-interest loans, participatory loans, that is to say that you will only pay the interest and you will start to repay the capital after seven years," he said.

“We will try to be by your side and to ensure, as for the Covid, to avoid the maximum damage, and to ensure that there is the minimum of death”, he added. .

In total, 30 million euros have been released in Normandy to help, according to his estimate, several hundred companies.