"I wanted to speak today to share with you what we went through to get the EMP, announcement in a video posted on Linkedin Jean-François Jamelot, head of the JFJ Rotogaronne printing works, located in Agen in Lot-et-Garonne. "I hear that 97.5% of the companies that applied got it... We must be in the other 2.5%."
"But it's all just words."
Jean-François Jamelot took over the Rotogaronne company in February 2019 . "I needed to say what's really going on behind all this publicity, behind all the fancy talk, he explains. You can't hear on the radio or on TV all day long that the EMP is just a phone call and that everybody will get it. If we go back to the speech of our dear president, he says: "It will cost what it will cost". But it's all just words."
And the bank's refusal doesn't pass. "I had a bad experience. I bought Rotogaronne because I'm passionate about the Roto-printing business. I believe in it! I've been working on it for two years, it's two years of 200% involvement! We've done 10 months of work as planned, and this crap is ruining everything. And I'm not alone in this, I've got 21 families with me. If we'd been in a bad financial situation, I'd have understood better. But now..."
With containment, the press and magazine printing company lost 60% of its turnover overnight . "What saved us was our customer base of regional weekly press and agricultural press, which continued to appear throughout the crisis. Without them, it was a total shutdown of the printing press."
"We must also support small industries"
In the end, he was able to get half of the amount he was asking for thanks to the support of the former Rotogaronne shareholder.
"Without his support, it was 21 guys in Agen that nobody cares about who would be unemployed! We're giving 7 billion euros to Air France, 5 to Renault and all we're asking for is the right to carry on. That's what makes me angry: we have to support small industries too. We must not forget that SMEs are the biggest employers in France. I'm disgusted and I think I'm not the only one who's going through this."
"Now, me and my 21 guys are gonna stay on top of it, keep our fingers crossed that the economy will pick up and we'll be fine.
The next world closer
"I'm one of those people who would like there to be a before and after (although I'm very pessimistic about that). In the after world - and I speak for myself and my colleagues - the big buying groups and agencies look around them before crossing borders to give their volumes. We're not always more expensive, we're flexible, we work well or even better!"
