Become a player in the attractiveness of the Pays Bigouden

The work continues, new projects emerge and we continue to raise funds to finance them:

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Much work remains to be done to complete the renaissance of the old Hôtel de Bretagne, and other important projects are well underway.

To carry out all these projects we need additional private and public resources.

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13 new future shareholders have recently joined us.

Bigouden Makers is an adventure open to all. We open our capital to all the lovers of the Bigouden Country, who share the values of our approach (deadline September 15, 2022). And we think about the conversion of our company, for a part of our activities, to the status of Cooperative Society of Collective Interest, to integrate a maximum of stakeholders of the territory (employees of the structure, companies, banks, communities, associations, citizens...).

The collective adventure, for the Bigouden territory, our first place that shows concretely that a dream can become reality, and the projects we are studying, raise an ever growing interest: so, join the adventure and become Bigouden Makers!

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Open house in Pont l'Abbé on August 10 and 31, 2022

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Bigouden Makers is a society which gathers 113 women and men, of all ages and all horizons, having a strong and deep attachment to the Bigouden Country.

Bigouden Makers, has bought the Hôtel de Bretagne, in Pont l'Abbé. A third place, Bigouden Makers Pont l'Abbé, is open to the public since January 26th, 2022. It is co-animated with the Association Les BIGS.

Bigouden Makers Pont l'Abbé is labelled " Fabrique de territoire ", by the Ministry of the cohesion of territories.

Bigouden Makers, is working on other impact projects to develop the attractiveness of the Pays Bigouden, by seeking collaboration with all willing actors, including communities.

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Bigouden Makers opens its capital to all those who wish to get involved in the future of the Bigouden country. We organize open doors on wednesday 10th and 31st of august in the morning.

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A corporate citizen for the development of the attractiveness of the Pays Bigouden

The Bigouden Makers company, created in March 2020 by lovers of the Bigouden region, aims to buy, rehabilitate and exploit places with an economic vocation, left without affectation, or in difficulties, not being sufficiently interesting for a classic investor, and presenting a potential of activity with an impact for the attractiveness and the development of the Bigouden region.

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Bigouden Makers has 113 shareholders:

• 104 individuals and 9 companies
• 46% women and 54% men
• 85% active
• 65% residents, 30% secondary residents (Brittany, Paris region, Belgium)
• 45 company directors, representing more than 350 employees, 200 of whom are in the Bigouden region

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The values are simple:

• Many put in little: the investment of each is not an issue for him, the search for immediate and strong profitability is therefore not the goal.
• No one can hold more than 20 shares: the company is therefore non-transferable and durable.
• No exclusivity, the capital is open to all those who respect the values of the company.
• Maximum recourse to shareholder financing in order to have a low level of bank debt and not to weigh too heavily on the operation (time to get started).
• Only existing places to give them new life: no new land (ZAN) and a resolutely ecological approach.
• Direct and indirect job creation.
• Actor of a global attractiveness dynamics of the territory in connection with all the motivated actors.

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The objectives of Bigouden Makers are clear:

• To participate in the development of the attractiveness of the Pays Bigouden, by leading projects, alone or in partnership with the communities.
• To provide the elected officials acting on the territory with concrete ways of working and to participate actively in the necessary territorial project.
• Address all the issues that impact attractiveness as outlined above (including housing, labor, production including farmland): Operate at 360 degrees
• All of this is inspired by the methods of third places that favor transitions, partnerships, cross-fertilization, sustainability, and construction as close to the ground as possible with the involvement of a maximum number of local stakeholders.

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We wish to bring a decisive impulse to the development of the Bigouden Country, and to continue what we have already done in 2 years:

• Creation of BIGOUDEN MAKERS sas
• Acquisition of the Hôtel de Bretagne in Pont l'Abbé
• Recruitment of a team (already 5 jobs created)
• Increase of our capital (now 520 000 €)
• Creation of the association Les BIGS
• Obtained the label "Fabriques de territoire" from the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion
• Opening of the Café / Shop / Coworking of Bigouden Makers Pont l'Abbé on January 26th 2022
• First residents and coworkers welcomed since February 2022

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Bigouden Makers Pont l'Abbé, the third place of the Bigouden Country

Six months after the opening, the former Hôtel de Bretagne, our first place in the heart of the Bigouden capital, is alive again. Every day, many people, of all ages, push the door of couleur Glaz, to drink a coffee or taste our "home-made" dishes during a lunch break or a snack.

But Bigouden Makers Pont l'Abbé is also a place of work. The first teleworkers have started to settle in the adapted spaces. Five resident companies have already invested their office to write the next step of their development. Today, 14 jobs have been created on the site.

Why come to work in such a place?

Let's talk to Magali Nouguier, director of Tikio communication web & digital, first occupant of the place:

"I dreamed of having my office in a place like this one: a stone's throw from my home and the beaches, to have everything on the spot (coffee, meals, meeting rooms, garden and terrace), to be able to develop my business in the heart of the Pays Bigouden, to meet beautiful and inspiring people, a place where ideas will abound.

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The BIGS association, co-host of Bigouden Makers Pont l'Abbé

The association aims to give the users and lovers of the place the means to contribute to its functioning and animation. It works in particular within the framework of the labeling " Fabrique de territoire " which gives to this place a role of crossroads of the " Entrepreneurs " of the Bigouden Country.

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This beautiful recognition and the financial support provided by the State (50 000 € per year for 3 years), allows us to carry out our projects of animation of the Entrepreneurs of the Bigouden Country and mixing of the public:

• Meeting points for companies, freelancers and teleworkers
• Conferences and training on professional and personal development
• Events created or hosted (concerts, fairs, exhibitions)

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Bigouden Makers Pont l'Abbé, supported by the association Les BIGS, is clearly the totem third place of the Bigouden Country. In relation with the communities, we aim at encouraging meetings and partnerships between all the places of activity, exchanges and creation which aim at the development of the Bigouden territory and whose citizen actors share the desire to make together.

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The association Les BIGS also contributes to the animation program of the place.

Four themes are proposed, in conjunction with local partners, to get the territory moving:

• Affinity Cafés: our goal is to encourage exchanges over coffee. Numerous "Cafés" have already brought together a wide variety of audiences: Café littéraire (including youth), Café des BIGS or Café breton. And others are planned: Stroller Café, German Café...

Whether you are a member of the association or just a passer-by, there will always be a coffee shop to arouse your curiosity and let you speak.

• Markets of creators, Christmas, to eat or Troc plants. The garden and the rooms of Bigouden Makers Pont l'Abbé will promote local products.
• Cultural events: exhibitions, concerts, workshops on themes such as the ecological transition, conferences...
• The Makers' Workshops: open-mindedness and learning are the objectives of the conferences, meetings, trainings and other workshops that we will organize. Ecological transition, entrepreneurship, personal development will be the themes proposed to the Entrepreneurs of the Pays Bigouden and to all the public.

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Bigouden Makers projects

Our projects are necessarily part of a global approach:

• Based on a knowledge of the strategic places of the territory,
• Aiming at the emergence of structuring tools for the territory and strong elements of attractiveness,
• Conceived jointly by the communities and private actors (and more broadly by permanent or visiting inhabitants of the territory) who have expressed their interest and their commitment in the long term,
• In a systematic logic of sustainable development.

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As we met and worked on the many projects we were studying, key questions emerged:

• Difficulties in accessing housing, particularly for young people and seasonal employees.
• The great tensions in the field of employment, in all professions and particularly in the tourism professions.
• The search for different work spaces, allowing to find multiple services in the same place, while promoting exchanges and meetings.
• The lack of hotel establishments that meet the new expectations of business and leisure customers.

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The 5 projects currently under study address these issues.

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1. Bigouden Makers Pont l'Abbé, phase 2

Given the success of the start-up of the activity, and listening to the needs formulated, we wish to create new shared offices, 2 workshops for craftsmen, as well as three new accommodations (one room and two apartments-hotel).

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2. A hotel restaurant 

The aim here is to take over an establishment requiring investments that are too heavy for the current operator, particularly in terms of sustainable development, while consolidating an accommodation division.

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3. A third place of services to the territory

We wish to create a pole of services to the population and the territory, like a Beguinage

• Furnished rooms for young Bigouden, for seasonal workers, for visitors
• Common areas: kitchen, laundry room, dining room, living room.
• A House of maternal assistants.

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4. A Foodlab, a place for tasting and conviviality 

We are going to set up a place of conviviality and attractiveness, mixing activities of coffee, small restoration centered on the products of the sea, and a site of production of type Foodlab (beer, smoked fish and products of the sea transformed ", ice creams...), actor of the necessary ecological, social and economic transitions, opened to the professionals and the private individuals.

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5. The Bigouden Academy: Setting up a local training offer for Bigouden employees and entrepreneurs

To propose to Bigouden employees and entrepreneurs, close to their home and workplace, trainings allowing them to increase their skills. These trainings will naturally take place in the third place.

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We have designed a training program, with an 18-month timeline.

The modules concern all the companies of our territory. Our objective is not only to improve the skills of the employees of the Pays Bigouden, but also to encourage exchanges between employees of different companies.

And because health and safety at work are two major concerns, we organized, at the beginning of April, the first two sessions of the module: "First aid at work". 15 trainees, from 6 local companies, talked about prevention and learned life-saving techniques.

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