The Michelin group, a French tire manufacturer present in 127 countries around the world, announced on Tuesday that it would restart three French sites in Troyes, Puy-en-Velay and Clermont-Ferrand, in order to revive production but also to manufacture protective masks.
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" Today, we have three factories starting to manufacture category 1 masks ," said Florent Menegaux, president of Michelin at the microphone of RTL . These protections will be distributed to group employees who will gradually resume work as well as to nursing staff. In addition, Michelin plans to manufacture a new generation of FFP2 masks, in partnership with the CEA, a research center (energy, industry, defense and security). " We will go into production to make millions I hope, " continued the president, adding that these rubber-based prototypes are " in the approval phase ".
In addition, Florent Menegaux indicated that the Michelin group has the capacity to " manufacture parts for respirators ". He said he supported Air Liquide, the only manufacturer of respirators in France, and said it was working on " a project to assemble and manufacture another type of respirator ".
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Asked about the health measures taken to allow employees to return to work safely, the president of Michelin initially announced that they were voluntary employees. In a second step, he explained that he had implemented systematic hand washing, two meters away instead of the recommended meter as well as taking the temperature at the entrance to the factories. The interior doors also remain open to limit risky contacts.