Chargeurs, the world leader in several niche businesses, is mobilizing to respond to the health crisis. Building on its leadership in chemicals and textiles, the group will start production of hydro-alcoholic solutions for healthcare professionals and mission-critical sectors as well as production and import of protective masks in industrial quantities.
“All of Chargeurs’ talents are proud and do not count their hours and efforts day and night in support of national health needs. “said Michaël Fribourg, chairman and CEO of Chargeurs.
“Responding to Mr. Fribourg’s request, we will be stepping up our capabilities in the coming days by mobilizing our research, our world-class engineering and our expertise in international logistics,” said Philippe Denoix, director of industrial performance and logistics for the Chargeurs Group.
Faced with shortages in France and several other countries, Michaël Fribourg has drawn on the Chargeurs Group’s exceptional talents to redirect the company’s production capabilities and pump out protective masks and hydro-alcoholic gel in industrial quantities for healthcare professionals and vulnerable workers.
Thanks to the commitment of its teams during this unprecedented period, and in close collaboration with the country’s health authorities, the group is now able to produce industrial quantities of:
- A hydro-alcoholic gel that is compliant with the recommendations of This gel will be turned out by the talents of its Novacel site in Normandy, which is part of Chargeurs’ Protective Films Division headed by Laurent Dérolez and his deputy Richard Marchant. The site has the required expertise and certifications to do that. Production will be ramped up in the coming days and the gel will be distributed to all professionals exposed to the coronavirus. Target production, depending on the accessibility of raw materials, is five tons a week over the next few weeks.
- Large quantities of sanitary masks, especially surgical masks. Tested by public laboratories, these masks will be produced thanks to the talents of Lainière de Picardie managed by Denis Noharet and Gilles Hourlier, within the PCC Fashion Technologies branch headed by Angela Chan, in conjunction with leading French and foreign apparel The target production, two weeks from now, is more than one million units a week. In the coming days, Chargeurs’ textile innovation laboratories in France, Asia and the United States will also be developing new prototypes of masks that can be mass-produced to meet current health and safety requirements and to keep pace with changing needs over the long term. The group is also harnessing its Senfa Technologies laboratory for research into functionalized textiles in Alsace.
Concurrently, the group’s teams are harnessing their worldwide network to speed up, in coordination with health and economic authorities, importation of protective masks suited to professionals.
This industrial mobilization demonstrates the responsiveness and commitment of Chargeurs, which never ceased lending its support to the collective interest in all circumstances since its founding in 1872. These initiatives will soon be rolled out worldwide at other group sites and countries that have the capacity and capabilities to do so.
The group will be setting up business continuity teams wherever such initiatives are required.
