Already forty members. The small team of the brand new Delta association, which aims to represent companies in the Signes business park, is quite proud to announce this figure.
Placed on the baptismal font in November, inaugurated during a first evening of wishes at the beginning of the month, Delta – for Leaders of local businesses in the territory of Signes activities – takes up the torch. After several years of silence, a voice was needed to federate this site, which is nevertheless rich in 150 companies – and up to 180 by adding the SCIs – for 1,800 employees, 60% of whom are from Var and 40% from Bouches-du-Rhône .
Strategic
It is this strategic location that the six members of the newly elected office wanted to promote.
“Delta is also the shape of the area, nestled between three roads, at the crossroads of two departments”explains the brand new president Dominique Maredi, ex-Marseillais who himself set sail for Signes a year ago, to set up his business of concierge, purchase, sale and rental of luxury cars. “Spurred on by the Var Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIV), we got started. We needed a single point of contact who might talk to the public authorities.”
Multiple construction sites
Organized into three committees – business management-human resources; environment-transport-waste management; and communication – the members of Delta wish to involve all members in the work of the association, to highlight the needs of each other. Because the projects are multiple. While the 180-hectare area has many advantages, including the price of land, which is still accessible, close to two major cities, its potential is immense, and no doubt somewhat hampered by a few black spots. Starting with the transport file. “Hardly any buses pass here. This does not help companies to recruit”, testifies the secretary general Matthieu Franceschi whose graphic design and printing agency left Saint-Cyr for Signes six years ago. There is also a lack of parking for heavy goods vehicles which transport loads for businesses in the area every day.
Other urgent file; that of fiber installation, in the face of which not all companies are equal. “We have it but it was at our expense”, specifies Émilie Morel of the communication committee of Delta, at the head of the remote surveillance company IDM Cors Online. The young leader already plans to create a coworking space and will set up regular meetings to allow Delta members to discuss and meet; a monthly lunch in one of the restaurants on the Plateau de Signes, followingworks, breakfasts…
Because alongside heavyweights like Ipsen, Coca Cola, American Vintage and Oreca, the Signes area has many SMEs and the idea is also to make everyone work together. “Some companies don’t even know they have a potential subcontractor or customer right next door.” And also to make the area attractive for employees. A hotel in the area and a gym would also be necessary in the eyes of the very young team, anxious to give this economic powerhouse the image it deserves.
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Still land available
The area of Signs is much larger than one might imagine. If we add the pool of jobs located in the town of Le Castellet, which Delta also includes and which notably includes the Paul-Ricard circuit, the airport and the hotel complexes, this represents 500 additional employees.
On the activity zone itself, created in 1987 to compensate for the closure of the shipyards of La Seyne and La Ciotat, there remain 14 hectares of land immediately available, and 45 hectares to the north and north-west to be serviced. The Var Chamber of Commerce and Industry is in charge of marketing.
Motorway access bar, bypass… and intercommunality
The president of the CCI of the Var Basil Gertis had announced, in December, that the Prefecture of the Region validated the launch, at the beginning of the year, of a feasibility study relating to the realization of a bar of access to Signs area.
“The CCI of Var will be the leader and the aim is also to study the bypass of Beausset and Cuges, in the Bouches-du-Rhône. A budget of 1.2 million euros is allocated to this study. “, he specified. Because access is one of the big black spots of this Var lung. Many trucks that cross the village of Beausset in particular must go there. The president had also pointed out the accident-prone nature of the road. Where public transport is not very developed, plead the members of Delta.
The mayor of Six-Fours Jean-Sébastien Vialatte, for his part, expressed himself, during the wishes of the association of companies in the west of Toulon, Adeto, so that the community of agglo Sud Sainte-Baume , of which the plateau is a part, enters the Metropolis of Toulon, in order to influence, among other things, the question of transport.
