France Taps Colbert in Obama-Like Effort to Bring Jobs Back Home – Bloomberg

French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg, an advocate of fortress Europe against “unfair”
trade practices, says he has a new way to bring jobs back home:
Colbert 2.0.

Named after Louis XIV’s mercantilist finance minister,
Colbert 2.0 is software Montebourg unveiled last week that he
said will allow companies to determine whether they’re better
off producing in France. In 17th century France, Jean-Baptiste
Colbert raised tariffs to keep out imports and encouraged local
manufacturing.

Montebourg is betting he can show companies that factoring
in superior infrastructure, quality of labor, research and
efficiency, they can benefit from manufacturing in France. His
efforts are aimed at reversing the trend of joblessness, which
has reached a record in France, with no signs of a recovery
after the economy slid into recession in the first quarter.

Companies that took jobs overseas are finding that
“hidden costs, rising labor and transport costs, quality
issues, the need to be close to customers, and consumers’
growing appetite for made-in-France products are” hampering
them, he said at a press conference in Paris on June 14.
“Several companies are partly or fully coming back.”

Colbert 2.0 is an effort by France, which has lost market
share to European and emerging market competitors because of
rising production costs, to try and lure investment. The
software, which goes live next month, is built on attempts
similar to those adopted by Sweden and Barack Obama’s
administration to promote so-called “re-shoring” of production
to bring jobs back home, Montebourg said.

Colbert 2.0

The software prompts companies to answer 50 questions before
providing a verdict on their potential for relocating to France,
giving them an action plan proposal, available aid and a
government contact. It also offers to put them in touch with
similar businesses that have moved production back to France.

Meccano, a French toymaker based in Calais, northern France,
which has outsourced 68 percent of its production to China,
plans to trim that number to 55 percent in 2015.

“The issue with China isn’t only the rise in wages, which
remain 8 to 10 times lower than in France, it’s the lack of
skilled labor and production delays,” Meccano Chief Executive
Officer Michael Ingberg said at the conference.

Eminence, a French maker of men’s underwear, brought
production back from Asia and North Africa when sales dropped
last year. It wanted to hold on to better-skilled France-based
workers and to react more quickly to swings in demand from
retailers, the company’s chairman said.

Other Costs

“We’d rather overpay French workers than pay penalties for
missed deliveries,” Eminence Chairman Dominique Seau said at
the conference.

As transport costs rose, French ski maker Skis Rossignol
created 25 jobs at home by repatriating some output from Asia in
2011 and 2013 to be closer to its clients. Labor accounts for
about 10 percent of total ski costs, according to Rossignol.

“A guaranteed ‘made in France’ label is working and
creating strong brand value for clients,” said Jean-Laurent
Nectoux, a Rossignol director in charge of manufacturing.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Francois de Beaupuy in Paris at
fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Vidya Root in Paris at
vroot@bloomberg.net
Simon Thiel at
sthiel1@bloomberg.net