Work on the new Bank of France banknote factory in Vic-le-Comte, in Puy-de-Dôme, will begin “by the end of 2023”, the central bank announced in a press release on Thursday. .
The green light has been given today to the Purchasing Department and the team plans to move on to the implementation phase of the Refoundation project, the code name for this move from the current site, the document continues.
In the pipeline for around ten years, the construction of a new ticket printing plant to replace the current factory in Chamalires, near Clermont-Ferrand, was completed in the summer of 2022, before being subsequently suspended. of a strike launched in December.
An agreement was finally reached on July 21, 2023 between management and the social partners.
The conditions for the implementation of the memorandum of understanding on the support measures for the competitiveness plan, signed with all the social partners on July 21, have now been met (end of the strike, return of all the factory operating on target, setting up a working group on machine ergonomics), details the Banque de France.
It also specifies that the work will continue in 2024 and 2025, for progressive commissioning in 2026.
The successive delays of this project, which must see the light of day alongside the current central bank stationery, have also increased the bill to more than 250 million euros, compared to around 200 million euros in the estimate at the end of 2016. .
The current printing press has been in operation since 1917 in Chamalires on a site which has reached its limits of development, specifies the Bank of France on its website.
The last banknotes will leave the Chamalires factory in 2027, before a phase of decontamination of the site.
When the project is completed in 2026, France should have the most modern, efficient and ecological public production center for banknotes (stationery and printing) in Europe, welcomes the Banque de France.