Health personnel in French hospitals will be able to put on single-use nitrile gloves, made in their country from 2023. In Bessé-sur-Braye, in the east of Sarthe, the Kolmi-Hopen group, manufacturer of single-use equipment for the medical, industrial and hygiene sectors, based in Saint-Barthélémy-d’Anjou, near Angers, is about to finalize its production plant project.
These gloves, which are less allergenic than latex ones, are now mainly imported from Asia. After the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the issue of 100% French supply appeared to be a priority at the purchasing center of French public hospitals. The latter signed a four-year contract worth 80 million euros with Kolmi-Hopen, in order to ensure the supply of 1.75 billion gloves.
This order allowed the Angevin group to launch the project, which it had been thinking about for several years. “We already had a range of single-use gloves, but we were wondering about the advisability of a nitrile glove factory in France.confides its managing director, Gérald Heuliez. The investments are very heavy. Producing gloves is fifteen times more expensive than making masks. The market was not pushing us to get started. »
Recruitment has started
The context linked to Covid-19 and supply difficulties abroad has changed the situation. “The market is more receptive to European production, with a different price delta”, indicates the industrialist. After having approached several regions, it is in the Pays de la Loire, where it is based, that the group has decided to set up its future ManiKHeir factory. More precisely in Bessé-sur-Braye, instead of the Arjowiggins paper mill, liquidated in March 2019, and which had left 580 employees on the floor.
“What made the difference were the technical characteristics of the site. The building was better adapted and the deadlines for obtaining authorizations were shorter. We could start in a secure way as early as 2022”rejoiced a year ago, in May 2021, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the Minister Delegate for Industry, when announcing the choice of location.
Quite a symbol. To revitalize this site, Kolmi-Hopen benefits from 10 million euros from the State (with the Resilience call for projects) and 5 million euros from the region, directed by Christelle Morançais (Les Républicains). location of the factory will represent half of the area of the former paper mill. This summer, the first production lines, ordered in Malaysia, will be installed in Sarthe.
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