"In 2023, we should have a growth of 40%", rejoices Jean-Marie Mathelin, deputy general manager of NBC-Sys, installed in Saint-Chamond (Loire), in the historical basin of manufacture of gas masks, since 1951.

The company of the Nexter group, which supplies the French army and a dozen other countries with masks and cartridges, is located in the Novaciéries district, where rare high red brick chimneys remain, a vestige of an industrial past marked by the manufacture of the first French tanks, called the Saint-Chamond, during the First World War.

Today, the company is developing there, in a completely renovated test laboratory, the new gas masks which will be used by the end of the year in qualification to equip the French army.

The first deliveries are expected in three or four years.

By the end of 2023, NBC-Sys will have doubled its turnover in five years, which should reach 35 million euros this year.

The workforce has at the same time jumped by half to reach 84 employees today, plus around thirty temporary workers and service providers.

"Increased Threat"

"We have had no additional orders related to the war in Ukraine. It is an increase in the CBRN threat (Nuclear Radiological Bacteriological and Chemical) for several years and an awareness of the armies that it was necessary to renew the stock “, explains Mr. Mathelin.

President Emmanuel Macron had wanted in June to switch to a "war economy", that is to say to allow the defense industry to gain momentum in the face of the specter of major conflict, highlighted by the war in Ukraine. .

An NBC-Sys technician works on the manufacture of new gas masks, February 13, 2023 in Saint-Chamond, in the Loire © JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP

The objective is to "produce quality equipment, in quantity and more quickly", summarizes one at the Ministry of the Armed Forces.

To accommodate the growth, NBC-Sys commissioned an automated cartridge production line last year.

Masks and cartridges are entirely assembled within the company from French components, "which ensures us total sovereignty", rejoices the boss of NBC-Sys, adding "that in the event of a crisis, it is the French army which will be served as a priority".

A second production unit will also open in Saint-Étienne in early April.

The future site will occupy 1,000 square meters of the former arms factory of Saint-Étienne: a symbol that makes a region once called "Armeville" dream, as it was the epicenter of French armament.

"Other industrial projects in the armament sector are in the making in the city of Saint-Etienne", told AFP Hervé Reynaud, the LR mayor of Saint-Chamond, welcoming "to participate again in national sovereignty".

What instill hope after the procession of job cuts that had hit this sector from the 90s, notably marked by the cessation of the manufacture of small arms of war in France.

Although some projects are still confidential, the manufacturer of hunting weapons Verney-Carron, which is diversifying into small-caliber defense weapons, does not hide the fact that it expects a lot from the 2024-2030 military programming law which will be discussed in the spring, while the young company Hexadrone confides that it already carries out half of its activity with the French army, according to its founder, Alexandre Labesse.

An NBC-Sys technician checks the quality of gas masks, February 13, 2023 in Saint-Chamond, in the Loire © JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP

"The increased need for small-caliber ammunition will rekindle interest in a French industry that has now disappeared," said Nicolas Bonnet, director general of the Lyon Métropole Saint-Étienne Roanne Chamber of Commerce and Industry. , which manages the national test bench for weapons, located in Saint-Etienne and unique in France.

© 2023 AFP