Large French companies, including Michelin and we regret it, did not shed light on the economic policy of recent years and applauded what was presented as a brilliant supply policy while the pursuit of deindustrialization was engraved in the marble: we can see the result today.
A charismatic boss “Monsieur François” (Michelin) took a Clermont-Ferrand company to the top of the world tire industry. After him, the company continued to prosper, present in 175 countries, with 135,000 employees while maintaining 16 factories in France. With a turnover of more than 28 billion and a profit of more than 2 billion, the global company Michelin remains one of the French flagships of the industry.
The president of the company, since May 2019, Florent Menegaux, has retained the discretion and humility of the Founding Father. The “paternalism” assumed by successive leaders highlights the need to satisfy employees all over the world by taking care of their lives at work and outside, emphasizing progress in qualification.
The surprise of the industrial world came at the end of 2023 when the boss of the company made a major communication release, very unusual for “Michelin” on the need for a “decent” salary for all employees of the company holding taking into account the context of each region or country and corresponding for France to 1.5 to 3 times the minimum wage! Understandable as internal motivational communication, this speech came as a shock to many small, medium or larger business leaders struggling with their payroll to remain competitive. In particular, subcontractors of large companies (including Michelin) have not understood this “exit” while their clients’ “Purchasing” directors ask them for very low prices and annual productivity improvements that are often unattainable due to social charges and taxes coming to destabilize them with the support of standards and regulations in which the Large Groups are disinterested. This “lesson” given to all “indecent” business leaders! » went badly while Michelin closed its Roche sur Yon site from 2019 showing the weaknesses of the tire giant’s French locations.
It is in this context that the announcement in the fall of 2024 of the closure of two other sites in the West, Cholet and Vannes, stunned the national industrial world, especially when analyzing the reasons given by the company manager. . The cost of energy has been multiplied by 2, that of gas by 5, the payroll has broken through the ceilings with social charges, taxation is unbearable and the French buy Chinese and Indian tires cheaper than those we produce : competitiveness has therefore deteriorated since 2019 and Michelin must learn the consequences!
The speech at the end of 2024 is therefore very different from that at the start of the year, leading to dismay among staff who are viscerally attached to “their” company and even if everyone knew of the drop in orders in recent months, they hardly expected any changes. closures as complete and rapid. Does giving lessons to colleagues and suppliers one day while arguing the next day about French “non-competitiveness” without even having attempted to fight on this ground make sense?
In fact, many companies have criticized the European electricity market with the introduction of artificial competition with numerous “suppliers” producing nothing, transporting nothing and distributing nothing. The cost of French wind power is 9 billion euros per year, while the national structure has no need for intermittent and random energy. If electrical energy is today twice as expensive for our manufacturers as in the United States, it is because these decisions have led to our production price being doubled to satisfy the inventors of the “market”.
The weight of wage costs and the non-protection of our market for Asian products are not new either. Large French companies, including Michelin and we regret it, did not shed light on the economic policy of recent years and applauded what was presented as a brilliant supply policy while the pursuit of deindustrialization was engraved in the marble: we can see the result today.
The resignation of the CAC 40 and the so-called “representative” bodies is now obvious and dialogue with employees is difficult to initiate despite the preferential treatment that Michelin reserves for its staff: everyone in the industry knew what was going to happen, only a few francs- shooters raised the alarms, quickly drowned out by the laudators of a suicidal economic policy.
This is the second lesson of what is happening today at Michelin: industrial leaders have a duty to protest when they observe a policy that is harmful to the country, the wave that will sweep away a large part of the automobile industry caused by the decision countries and the European Union was predictable, the exit from the manufacture of thermal vehicles in Europe was an industrial and social error, it is not up to bodies dominated by ideology to make technical choices, it is for the consumer to decide, today he will to the electric car in reverse, it is a French and European drama, all manufacturers should have mobilized in time.
The third lesson, undoubtedly forgotten today, is that of “Monsieur François” which always rings in my ears: “the boss is the customer”! How many times have I heard it, and how useful this repetition is for all of us! The closure of the Vannes and Cholet factories is combined with the disappearance of orders and therefore of the market. There are still heavy goods vehicles and vans in France, but the high costs make it impossible to compete with “low cost” countries, India and China in particular. This means that the customer is not aware of the difference in quality between the Michelin tire and the others. This observation can be applied to a significant number of manufactures, in particular for electric cars from China built at approximately half the price of ours. We have effectively delegated the manufacturing of quantities of products to Asia, with China becoming Europe’s factory, while we have forgotten that know-how requires doing. Does the “customer”, our boss, want this development or does he want another destiny for our country’s industry? It is a collective choice that deserves to be presented to the sovereign people. We can imagine customs duties of course but we can also measure the “coal” share in each product since low cost is often based on an increase in coal-fired power stations in these countries. We could therefore imagine a “coal” tax which would allow many French or European products to raise their heads. Mr. François would tell us that we must ask the “client-boss” what he thinks and influence French and European policy to preserve our know-how in our factories while accelerating research programs to make more efficient and ours are less expensive. I never saw him give up even in difficult times! But this requires will and pedagogy with regard to a government very far removed from real economic life and industry.
A fourth lesson is that of the research tax credit still hounded by hostile financial inspectors. Invented a long time ago, it has proven itself even if the country still cannot spend 3% of its GDP on research like its neighbors, we are still at 2.2%. Listening to the vociferations of parliamentarians about the millions from which Michelin has benefited and the need to “control” how what they call state money was spent, I was appalled by the profound nullity of economic knowledge and the misunderstanding of what a business was had invaded the entire Assembly. This CIR idea was brilliant, it allowed many industrial laboratories to set up in France, including, in priority, those of Michelin, whose behavior was exemplary. We must protect the CIR, protect our national industrial laboratories to preserve our know-how on our soil, stop suspecting our industrial companies of windfall effects and above all note that this money is not that of the State, it First of all, it is that of the tax paid by companies which is modestly returned to us for the benefit of the community.
Michelin is a French treasure, criticism and suspicion are shameful, let’s instead help them find solutions to the loss of competitiveness that all our companies are experiencing and avoid taxing and taxing a sick industry instead of deciding to reform the State spendthrift without much efficiency. A national coalition of companies must be formed, Michelin will be welcome.
Loïk Le Floch-Prigent
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