These northern entrepreneurs who bet (again) on the textile
A jacket from the Grain du Nord – Grain du Nord collection
The projects are multiplying in the textile sector of the Hauts-de-France, which turns the page of the black years …
The textile sector still employs 14,000 people in Hauts-de-France
Numerous development projects are emerging, aided by the success of Made in France
The beautiful days of the textile may be back in the Hauts-de-France. The sector, which still employs around 14,000 employees, is teeming with projects that had not been seen for a long time. To the point that some even find it hard to find enough employees to recruit.
Thus the underwear manufacturer Lemahieu is accompanied to train about ten new employees in two months. The company, which celebrates its 70 years of activity, employs 95 employees and seeks a total of fifteen dressmakers and seamstresses to accompany its development.
The “Made in France”, regional success
The success of the “Made in France” partly explains this good health, which resulted, in Lemahieu, in sales growth of 11% in 2016. “The minister who posed as a sailor (Arnaud Montebourg) had an effect Positive, but there is also innovation and the combined action of some players, “explains Olivier Diers, co-leader of Lemahieu.
In particular, the industrialist cited the French Slip’s culinary entrepreneurs, who knew how to value the know-how of Lemahieu, their supplier, while also communicating on the latest innovation, underwear “enriched” in cosmetics.
This appetite for the “locally made” is also what decided Leopold Rigaut, young employee of the school management Lille Ieseg, to try the adventure of textile. Sailing enthusiast, he designed a jacket made 100% in the Hauts-de-France, at workshops Audomarrois.
He has two weeks to complete the fundraising for his first collection (9,000 euros) on a participatory financing site. “It’s not easy to get started, but eventually I’ve found a lot of people who want to manufacture in the region.”
“We came out of the dark years”
The young creators of No. Co have, more than two years, succeeded. All four came out of the school of applied art of Roubaix (Esaat), they launched at the beginning of the year their brand of trendy T-shirts designed and entirely manufactured in the region. “The T-Shirt comes from Lemahieu, the ribbons of Comines, the consumables [motifs that decorate the T-shirts] of Tourcoing …”, describes Anaïs Defever, who assumes the function of artistic director, in the band of 4.
In the absence of direct funding, parastatal aid was “decisive” (BGE, CLAP) to launch the No-Co project. But they believe in it and hope to decline soon, too, a more extended range.
“We feel well, for three years, that we came out of the dark years,” says Jean-Dominique Aublin of the Union of textile industries of the North. “The effect of made in France looks sustainable, innovation exists. Development projects are there, and recruitments too. “
Olivier Aballain
Published on 23/05/17 at 17h43 – Updated on 23/05/17 at 19h16
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