The State is
"ready to invest"
alongside the equipment manufacturer Bridgestone to safeguard activity and employment in its Béthune (Pas-de-Calais) tire production plant threatened with closure, said Monday evening the Minister Delegate in charge of Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
Read also: Bridgestone: a difficult reclassification
“We, what we say to Bridgestone, it is first of all to agree to look at all the scenarios and not to close on principle of the scenarios, which we are ready to invest alongside them to give a future to this site »
, Declared the minister on the set of Audition Publique, weekly program in partnership with LCP, Public Senate and
Le Figaro
.
“There is no doubt that if we had the ability to find a balance with Bridgestone, we would put in money.
Investing today to relocate productions is what we are doing ”
, also affirmed Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
"All options are open"
She referred to several scenarios for maintaining activity:
“another tire production is what Bridgestone has done on its Italian site where it started with low value-added production (...) more complex, more expensive tires ”
, or activities
“ around ”
tire production, logistics, or recycling, or an activity that is not linked to the world of tires.
"All options are open,"
said the minister who recalled the forthcoming holding of a meeting with the Bridgestone teams, and next Monday a meeting in Bercy with trade unions and local elected officials, affirming the wish of the government to
“give a future” to all the employees “who are now in the factory”
.
