Michelin reimburses 4.3 million euros

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Every time he passes his old factory, Jean-Louis Divet, 32 years at Michelin, feels the same anger. A site completely modernized with public money from 2017 and very quickly closed. “We are behind the Michelin factory, on one side. And that’s where we had the loads. We can see the last buildings they made with the money they received”he explains.

Michelin had received 4.3 million euros in state aid. Today, the company returned that money. Because when the factory closed, the new machines were transferred to Spain, Italy and Poland. A situation denounced this year by senators, pushing the CEO of Michelin, Florent Menegaux, to react: “If the CICE was not used for the machines that remained in France, it would not be abnormal for us to reimburse them”. Refund honored.

But for certain former employees, like Jean-Louis Divet, who converted to catering, the decision comes too late. “We bought machines in France for the French. And in fact, they went abroad to support other people. And we found ourselves without work and with nothing”he laments.

In France, most business aid does not provide for sanctions in the event of job cuts and relocation. But for Pascal de Lima, economist, the real problem is the lack of traceability: “This public aid comes either from the State, or from the regions, or from the European Union, and there is currently no centralized file which allows us to know exactly which companies have benefited, in which region, and by how much”. Contacted, the Ministry of the Economy assures that it is working on a public aid monitoring tool. It should see the light of day next year.

Report of the commission of inquiry into the use of public aid to large companies and their subcontractors (Senate, 2025)

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