Faced with China, mask manufacturers are running out of air: Angevin companies are resisting

This is the story of an industrial sector created ex nihilo in the light of a global health crisis. When Covid-19 arrived in France at the start of 2020, the SME Kolmi-Hopen from Anjou had a virtual monopoly on the manufacture of surgical masks in France. It holds three-quarters of a market shared with a handful of historical competitors. Their production capacity quickly becomes insufficient in view of the increased needs, opening the door to massive imports.

On March 31, from the Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou factory, President Emmanuel Macron calls for more production in France, on our soil . In this battle for national sovereignty , Kolmi-Hopen is on the front line. In a few weeks, its production increased from 1.5 million to 3.5 million masks per day. The workforce is increased by 50% to allow the site to work seven days a week, day and night. And, from the month of July, a second factory opens in Beaucouzé. Express.

A year and a half later, the situation has reversed. Faced with the drop in demand and the appearance of around thirty new manufacturers, this subsidiary of the Medicom group had to part with 70 employees out of the 180 it employed during its peak of activity. More than 2 million masks still come out of its lines daily, under the effect of the fifth wave. A reprieve before an inexorable decline, in a context where there are clearly too many people compared to demand , according to its CEO Gérald Heuliez.

“We made a big sacrifice, we must return the favor”

The Angevin leader has strong backs. But other actors are on the verge of asphyxiation, so much so that the president of the French union of mask manufacturers, Christian Curel, urges the state to react. Today, 97.5% of public calls for tenders are allocated to the purchase of Chinese masks , he warned on November 24 in the Journal des Entreprises. We must refocus the selection criteria on quality, security of supply and the environmental aspect, rather than on the sole criterion of price , he added, because if things do not change by the summer, there will no longer be a French branch.

A give-and-take vision shared in part by Gérald Heuliez. The three months during which the production of Kolmi-Hopen was requisitioned by the State, in the spring of 2020, prevented the company from supplying its international customers. Since then, we have continued to suffer from this thread which has been cut , points out the leader, hoping that the people who manage the calls for tenders are aware that we have made a big sacrifice and that we must return the favor .

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The boss indeed notes that many small calls for tenders, such as the army or the fire brigade, have made curious choices with products imported from Asia . However, it is not with these volumes that we would save the mask sector , he nuances, lucid. As for the State, it is not going to buy masks to buy masks! No, the problem is elsewhere, starting with the price.

"The Chinese are in a logic of completely breaking the market"

Arriving on the surgical mask market in April 2020, AppCell immediately identified price as the major issue. The Beaucouzé company (25 employees, €3 million in turnover), specializing in the transformation of materials, wanted to turn the offer upside down thanks to an ingenious system of pre-cutting in rolls. This unprecedented technique has enabled it to manufacture masks in large volumes and at a lower cost for more than one million euros, at €0.08 per unit.

But today, the Chinese are in a logic of completely breaking the market with lower prices than before the crisis, around 0.03 to 0.06 € , points out Matthieu Billiard, co-founder of AppCell and president of the Chamber trade and industry of Maine-et-Loire. A tariff that does not even cover the price of the raw material. Without pronouncing the word dumping , the leader points out the naivety of the French public authorities on Beijing's intentions: to bring down the sectors that have been created all over the world to become the planetary leader again .

In order to resist the Chinese offensive, AppCell has just filed a patent for a new manufacturing process which should bring it to a unit price of €0.05. The first series should leave the factory at the beginning of 2022. We are on a real innovation, with a mask much more comfortable than the classic models , advances Matthieu Billiard. Innovation as a way out. It's a real bet, but if we were at 15 cents, it wouldn't even be worth going to play .

For its part, Kolmi-Hopen compensates for these difficulties by investing in its other activities. In particular, the company bought the former Arjowiggins site, in Sarthe, last May, to produce disposable protective gloves there. The future is preparing for the fact that Europeans will soon no longer use masks , poses Gérald Heuliez, recalling that this branch only represented 25% of its turnover before the pandemic.

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