“It's a boost
,
”
rejoices Jérôme Rethore.
The company Guédant, specializing in natural food extract, and of which he is the general manager, will soon receive 215,000 euros from the State.
This precious help is part of the France relaunch plan launched on September 3 and which is presented to the European Commission on Wednesday.
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After supporting French companies heavily impacted by the health and economic crisis, the government now intends to guide industrial recovery through calls for projects. Since September, more than 1,412 laureates have been selected and will receive public funding to carry out their investments. “
We are in a period when companies may have a little more difficulty in projecting themselves. By supporting investment, we are taking this small step that will help them move on and continue to invest and therefore innovate.
", One explains to the ministry in charge of Industry. 35 billion euros out of the 100 billion of the Recovery Plan are thus devoted to industry, including 20 billion in production tax cuts, 12.5 billion dedicated to the Future Investment Plan (PIA) and which has aim to promote job creation. Finally, 3.4 billion euros will be distributed to companies in the form of calls for projects. A sum to which is added an additional 1 billion, redeployed in the face of the success of the calls for projects. More than 4,570 files have already been filed since September.
The Guédant company, based in Poigny (Île-de-France), will receive 215,000 euros or 10% of the 2.5 million euros of investments it undertakes to modernize and strengthen its activity.
“
It's really an accelerator.
Thanks to this sum, we will be able to commit money more quickly for our expansion work
, ”says Jérôme Rethore.
"
The goal is to expand the plant Poigny of just over 1,000 m2 extra to enhance our production capacity and our research and development activity
"
,
he continues.
In November, the company had applied for the call for projects "recovery plan for the industry-strategic sector" before receiving, four months later, the good news.
Strategic sectors
Companies are not chosen at random. Learning from a health crisis which has highlighted France's dependence on imports in certain sectors such as health and electronics, the government has favored four strategic poles summarized by the acronym DRIM: decarbonation, relocation, innovation and modernization and which will allow France to develop
“competitiveness and resilience”
. “
It is about developing Industry 4.0 thanks to new technologies such as artificial intelligence. But also to make industry, which is responsible for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in France, a driver of ecological transition,
”explains Agnès Pannier-Runacher's office.
In total, 1.6 billion euros of public aid has already been committed by the State, i.e. 25% of the total amount of investments generated by industrial companies, which amounts to 6.2 billion euros, according to the figures. of the Ministry of Industry dated April 9. The automotive and health sectors are among the best endowed, each with 17% of funds allocated by the state. “
We have experienced a loss of speed, France has gone from 1st to 4th place, even 5th, in Europe in terms of market share in the healthcare industries. These are the ranks that we are going to regain by modernizing and innovating,
”assures the Ministry of Industry. They are followed by aeronautics (16% of public aid) and agrifood (14%).
SMEs, VSEs and ETIs at the heart of the recovery plan
Beyond favoring certain sectors, France also intends to support its network of small and medium-sized enterprises.
VSEs and SMEs thus represent 60% of the winners of calls for projects for an amount of more than 700 million euros of public aid already committed.
23% of the winners are then medium-sized companies (ETI) for an amount of 280 million euros.
Finally, large companies only won 17% of calls for projects and will receive 500 million euros in funding.
“The French industrial fabric has more than 33,000 industrial SMEs, which explains why we find many of this type of business among the projects selected. But there is also a will to support them, in particular for the impact they can have on the territory in terms of direct and indirect job creation ”,
explains the Ministry in charge of Industry. This is indeed one of the objectives of the recovery plan, to create jobs. Calls for projects have already made it possible to consolidate or create 106,000 jobs, he says.
As for Jérôme Rethore, he is now waiting to review the first envelope of public aid promised by the State. A first will be given to him after the start of the work and the second at the end of the project. The payment of this financing is in fact conditional on proof of the commitment of funds by the company. Welcoming the strong demand, Jean Castex announced last April the extension of these calls for projects until next September.
