It's A Small World

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Nestled just north of Alençon, the new factory site is a sign Appli'Plast and its 45 employees have cause for optimism. Since taking it over in 1995 as a bankrupt business creating plastic manufacturing molds, Lenoir and Appli'Plast manager Jacques Vaillant have transformed the company into a producer of plastic components and accessories. End clients include carmakers Ford, Renault, Nissan and Opel, as well as appliance manufacturers.

Unlike many small- and medium-sized businesses in France, Appli'Plast refused all financial aid offered by local and regional governments, says Lenoir. It has also not exploited the reduced labor charges on new employee hires arising from France's reduced 35-hour workweek — a measure Lenoir calls "a nightmare." "Rather than offering assistance and incentives that are eventually shrunken down or simply taken away, the state should get out of business's way," scolds Lenoir, a proud economic liberal who thinks France's conservative government has the right reformist idea — but may lack the political courage to impose it fully.

Lenoir's lament is common among French small-business owners, who form a massive economic chorus. Ninety-nine percent of France's 2.5 million businesses employ fewer than 50 people — yet they still make up 53% of the labor market. Despite Lenoir's major gripes with France's labor strictures and tax regimes, he says he's willing to wait on French reform instead of defecting to friendlier business environments in the U.K. or Eastern Europe. In addition to exempting businesses with 20 employees or fewer from the 35-hour week, France's conservative government is considering measures to lighten corporate taxes and allow companies to hire and fire with greater freedom. It's also examining calls to partially shift financing of some programs — such as health coverage and pensions — from the employer to privatized schemes workers would pay into. All that, Lenoir says, would leave both businesses and employees with more money to use and invest more efficiently, and according to need — though it's not likely to happen rapidly in protection-obsessed France.

"Running a business also involves certain social and economic duties," he explains. "I'm not going to close this company and tell my employees, 'Sorry, but I can do better elsewhere. Blame the government.' My employees and companies like this are the solution, not the problem. Our job is to prove that by succeeding — and live better, fuller lives for it." — By Bruce Crumley

BOHEMIA: E.U. HEADACHES
For many people, headcheese — a seasoned loaf customarily made of pig's- head meat molded in aspic — is a culinary turnoff. But for Jirí Hlavácek, a butcher in Susice, south Bohemia, it was for years an economic lifeline. A grocer by profession, Hlavácek went into the meat business in 1991 at the exact same spot where, four decades earlier, Czechoslovakia's communists confiscated his grandfather's meat shop. His headcheese became a sought-after delicacy, praised for being uniquely ungreasy and lean (one secret: he uses pork knees).

Then about six years ago, business started to flag. Supermarket chains, able to command lower purchasing prices from suppliers, squeezed Hlavácek's profits by selling at big discounts. So Hlavácek, now 51 and employing 10, tried to counter the only way he could: better customer service. He converted part of his shop to a stand-up diner, and broadened his selection of meats, salads and ready-made meals.