Change of program for the German household appliance giant Vorwerk. Driven by its strong growth, it had planned to open a new factory in Germany. Finally, it is in France that it will establish itself! Because “the conditions here are favorable to the industry”, says the group. One thing is certain: our country has never been so attractive, with 1,600 foreign investment projects recorded in 2021, which have created or preserved 45,000 jobs.
Against all odds, it is in a small town in the urban community of Grand Châteaudun, in Donnemain-Saint-Mamès, that Vorwerk will settle, investing 57 million euros in a building which will come out of the ground at the end of 2023, with 74 jobs at stake. The company is not in unknown territory: it was in Cloyes-sur-le-Loir, 20 kilometers away, that it opened a first unit fifty years ago with 400 employees. This is also where its Thermomix food processor is made – more than a million copies sold in France! -, at the origin of a record turnover of 3.4 billion euros in 2021.
“Grand Châteaudun is a mini-tax haven!”
Grand Châteaudun has also attracted the wheat processor Ebly, in which the American company Mars is a shareholder. The territory, in fact, does not lack assets, with its rich industrial fabric made up of 20 activity zones. “We total 300 million euros of private investment, in the long and medium term”, welcomes Fabien Verdier (photo), president (various left) of the agglomeration. Located an hour and a half from Paris, “it has a cultural offer, good schools, hospitals”, he says. In the meantime – it is his big project – the conversion of his former military airport, the elected official also advances attractive land, with tax cuts on production. “Grand Châteaudun is a mini-tax haven!” he jokes.
To attract Vorwerk, the agglomeration community first got their hands on redeveloped 12-hectare land. Because Vorwerk, the region’s leading exporter, is a company with high added value. Like Safran, which here manufactures components for aircraft braking systems, requiring skills in micromechanics. “It is with this ecosystem of know-how that is difficult to relocate that we will strengthen the attractiveness, competitiveness and reindustrialization of our territory”, assures Fabien Verdier. His dream ? “One day attract the American Boeing or the Brazilian Embraer.”