France has shattered stereotypes on its way to claiming the crown as the top recipient for foreign investment in Europe, Business France executives shared assiduously during an Atlanta seminar last week. 

Perhaps, though, they could have rested their case after an endorsement that carried extra weight for a local audience assembled at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. 

Michael Goltzman, Coca-Cola Co.’s senior vice president for global policy and sustainability, noted that the Atlanta-based beverage giant not only bottles its drinks in France, but also that the country is one of few places around the world where it produces its enigmatic “secret formula,” the concentrate bottlers blend with water, sugar and carbonation to make the brown elixir. 

“France is special very much like Atlanta is special,” said Mr. Goltzman, noting that the French-made concentrate is exported out to 65 countries. “Not everybody gets to have a factory like that.” 

If it’s good enough for Coke, seminar organizers might have implied, it’s good enough for other Atlanta firms looking for a European base. 

Coke has been in France for more than a century and now operates six plants employing 2,800 people, with a multiplier effect of 8,000-10,000 jobs from its broader system. But the company is not resting on its historical success. 

“Our system made a commitment in 2020 to invest a billion dollars in France by the end of 2025 and we are on track to do that,” Mr. Goltzman said. 

Powering Green Growth

The endorsement comes just after Coke yet again sponsored the Olympic Games, where about 20 million drinks were served throughout Paris. 

Coke worked with the city government to use dispensing technology at some of the key Olympic venues — think fountain drinks served in reusable cups — reducing the need for bottles and cans. 

That went off so well that the city is using the experience as a benchmark for future events, Mr. Goltzman said. That’s an example of the value of engaging with the French government at multiple levels, he said. 

“We had a really strong collaboration that started actually three and a half, four years ago, to plan up to that and to make sure that we could help deliver on the vision that the government put forward for sustainable, inclusive games,” he added. 

Sustainable sensibilities are key to France’s current argument for investors, especially those in sectors like electric mobility and artificial intelligence, which are poised to consume power like never before.  

France’s energy supply, the third cleanest in Europe after heavily hydro-powered Sweden and Switzerland thanks to a heavy stock of nuclear power, was one of the many advantages put forth by Business France. 

The Green Industry Law, passed in 2023 and seen as a (much smaller) counter point to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act with 500 million euros in subsidies, is designed to cut 40 million tons of CO2 emissions, all while acknowledging that companies still need to consume electricity to grow. 

“The objective is to become leader in green technology and to accelerate the decarbonization of the economy,” said Philippe Yvergniaux, director of investment promotion at Business France’s New York office.

Wind and solar power are also on the agenda, with incentives for developers and manufacturers to deploy them, but France’s nuclear prowess has come back into vogue amid gas shortages tied to Russias’s invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions. Some 88 percent of French energy is generated from carbon-free sources, with nuclear accounting for more than 60 percent of the total mix. 

Adam Bruns, managing editor at Site Selection magazine, said small modular nuclear reactors are being weighed by “hyper-scale” tech giants as a means to fuel the power-hungry data centers being built to power artificial intelligence applications. 

France ranks No. 9 on the magazine’s sustainability rankings, which take into account green-energy facilities, data on building efficiency, renewable energy capacity and more, Mr. Bruns said during the panel, adding that the country is also No. 10 on the magazine’s Global Best to Invest rankings. 

French labor law: Unfounded fears?

French Consul General Anne-Laure Desjonquères opens the luncheon with remarks. Credit: Consulate General of France

The panelists tackled head-on the perception that French labor is fickle and inefficient, prone to vacationing and impossible to fire — a challenge foreign companies have voiced when coming into the market. 

Mr. Yvergniaux pointed to studies that show French workers working more hours than their German counterparts while averaging lower salaries, in part thanks to reforms President Emmanuel Macron accelerated in 2017. 

He added that more than 50 official industry clusters around the country help pool talent outside the more-expensive Paris region, and that workforce training is being taken more seriously around the country, showing a graphic with 65 schools across France collaborating with industry to teach students skills on the job. He displayed a similar map highlighting France’s 56 innovation clusters. 

“The French government and local authorities have invested a lot in training and in adapting the training for the workers to the skills which will be needed in the future,” Mr. Yvergniaux said.  

Christine Daric, a tax partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP’s Paris office, said “French labor law is not as terrible, trust me, as imagined in the U.S.” and that unions can be reasonable stakeholders, as long as companies treat them with dignity. 

“I’s a matter of knowing the law, having a good lawyer, and also managing the unions in a proper manner,” Ms. Daric said. 

Gerard Guyard, CEO of GravoTech, a provider of laser engraving machines, stood up from his place in the audience to share some comments on this point. Having completed 10 restructurings in France and other countries in Europe, he noted that the country stacks up surprisingly well. 

“It was easy in the U.S. It was difficult in Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the worst in being Belgium. France, it’s different. It takes a long time. You have discussions for months and months, but you come to a conclusion without any strike — not half an hour of strike. Of course, there’s a cost to that.”

 A key is having a good lawyer, a great human resources director, and a healthy dose of patience. 

“It was not rapid, it was not quick, but it was — I won’t say, smooth — it was professional. You have to respect the unions and they will respect you. It’s a simple as that,” Mr. Guyard said. 

Ms. Daric noted that France also has tax exemptions for companies wanting to bring in top-level talent from other locations around the world. 

“So to summarize, you can hire talent, and you can fire people who are less talented,” Mr. Yvergniaux said. 

Cultural Factors at Play 

Atlanta firms may be at an advantage given the longstanding connections between the city and France, from a sister-city relationship with Toulouse to a La French Tech hub designation and the longstanding France-Atlanta series of scientific, business and cultural collaborations with Georgia Tech — of which this discussion was a part. 

Georgia Tech also has a campus in Metz in France’s Lorraine region, now known as Georgia Tech Europe. 

The Consulate General of France and the French-American Chamber of Commerce Southeast, along with the Council of French Foreign Trade Advisors, or CCEF in French, provide an invaluable ecosystem and foster connections to the country, far beyond the magnetism of Paris. 

“There is a path that’s been forged,” said John Woodward, vice president of global commerce at the Metro Atlanta Chamber, who moderated the discussion. 

Brian Tolleson of Connexion South, an Atlanta-based consultancy aimed at linking the south of France and the Southeast  U.S., has seen overlapping values in the two regions. 

A growing entertainment industry, rapid adoption of technology and laid-back lifestyle are just a few of the similarities Mr. Tolleson has noticed since opening an office in Sophia Antipolis, a government-sancitioned “technopole” on the Mediterranean in the southeast corner of France.

“France is high on the likability scale for Americans,”  Mr. Tolleson said. 

He added that as artificial intelligence develops, language will barriers will come down just as concerns about dealing with unfriendly countries rise. 

“France is our first ally,” Mr. Tolleson added. “There’s a national security implication to us staying a lot closer to Europe than we ever have been before.” 

Through its France 2030 plan, the French government is investing 54 billion euros in decarbonizing its economy by driving innovation in sectors that align well with priorities in the U.S. and Georgia — energy, mobility, aeronautics and space. 

“That’s really $60 billion which will finance projects for the most part developed by companies, by the private sector, to help achieve these objectives,” Mr. Yvergniaux said. 

The lead investment promotion director said that along with Coca-Cola, Atlanta copmanies like AGCO, Newell Brands, Graphic Packaging and others are present in France. 

For its part, Coca-Cola isn’t going anywhere, Mr. Goltzman said. 

“Having been there 100 years, we remain confident in the country, in the economy’s ability to continue to grow.” 

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