Thirteen French companies have been selected in the tenth and eleventh rounds of the “Première Usine” (“First Factory”) call for projects, part of the France 2030 plan. The announcement covers projects for new industrial sites, from materials recycling to equipment manufacturing. It sheds light on a stage that is often difficult to finance: turning an innovation developed on a small scale into production capacity. But being selected does not mean that a factory is already running.
Funding the transition from prototype to production
Co-ordinated by the Directorate-General for Enterprise and the General Secretariat for Investment, the scheme is operated by Bpifrance on behalf of the state. It is aimed at industrial start-ups and SMEs that want to develop their innovations and produce them on an industrial scale. Support may take the form of grants or repayable advances, and is part of a wider range of funding that also includes other calls for projects, such as I-Démo.
The challenge is one of scaling up. A solution can be designed and developed without a company yet having the site, equipment and organisation needed to manufacture quantities for customers. “Première Usine” aims to support this transition to new production capacity. Public funding therefore supports industrial projects ahead of regular commercial production.
Since the scheme was launched in 2022, more than a hundred industrial projects have been supported, according to the DGE. For this latest announcement, the state has not published the amount awarded to each of the thirteen selected projects, the total funding for this selection or the number of jobs expected. It is therefore possible to describe the activities targeted, but not to assess, on the basis of this information, the public cost per site or the expected employment benefits.
Materials to reuse, heat to store
Several projects aim to turn a little-used material stream into an industrial resource. In Brittany, Circul’Egg wants to scale up the processing of eggshells into bio-based calcium carbonate for use in materials, and membrane powder for nutraceuticals. In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Nevada plans to chemically treat asbestos to produce reusable gypsum and silica. Its stated aim is to turn a hazardous material into inert materials.
In Occitania, Ecotech Ceram is to scale up a heat-storage solution designed to harness waste heat—that is, heat generated by an industrial activity that would otherwise go unused. Enersens is developing a silica aerogel-based thermal insulator, with applications including batteries. Nova Carbon wants to produce recycled, low-carbon fibre. These projects address different needs, but in each case their development will depend on the ability to manufacture consistently and find suitable markets.
The other selected projects span a wide range of activities. Photospace is to produce optronic solutions, which combine optics and electronics. Sintermat plans an industrial unit to manufacture metal or composite parts using Spark Plasma Sintering, a sintering process. CMP Composite wants to manufacture technical composite parts for the aeronautics, space, defence and mobility sectors. The DGE classifies these projects as being in strategic sectors; the markets mentioned do not mean that contracts with customers in those sectors have already been signed.
Equipment, mobility and healthcare: projects with targeted uses
In Occitania, Stradot is developing Spirob, a new generation of straddle-type valet robots designed to move or park cars while making efficient use of space. Positive Aviation wants to scale up production of a water-bombing aircraft for tackling forest fires and other fires. In Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Hélicoptères Guimbal plans to industrialise production of its G5 helicopters. These projects are intended to take specialised equipment to the industrial manufacturing stage; the announcement gives neither their commissioning timetable nor their planned volumes.
Two other projects target uses more directly connected to people. RDS, in Grand Est, wants to produce in France key stages in the manufacture, packaging and reconditioning of a solution for monitoring patients using a miniaturised connected patch. The device is presented as a way to facilitate early discharge from hospital. Olift, in Occitania, wants to scale up the manufacture of anti-drowning T-shirts.
This diversity makes the list less uniform than a simple sector-based ranking: it brings together processing methods, equipment, components and products intended for very different markets. The requirements for scaling up are therefore not the same. A production unit for parts, the treatment of a material and the assembly of equipment do not involve the same constraints in terms of supply, qualification and sales.
Selection should not be confused with industrial results
The government presents “Première Usine” as a lever for strengthening production capacity and value chains in France. It also counts more than 3,500 industrial start-ups, twice as many as in 2021, and attributes turnover of more than 6.4 billion euros to them in 2025. This figure concerns all these companies, not the thirteen newly announced selected projects.
To assess the impact of the selection, useful indicators will emerge over time: sites actually opening, production starting, volumes manufactured, customers served and jobs genuinely created. At this stage, the announcement confirms support for thirteen projects and their industrial focus. It does not yet allow them to be counted as thirteen factories in operation. The practical impact of the call will be determined by the gap between a supported project and regular production.
References
- Directorate-General for Enterprise: announcement of the 13 “Première Usine” projects selected
- Clubic: overview of the selected projects
Industrial robots. Illustrative photo, unrelated to the thirteen selected projects.
