Sillinger, a small French manufacturer of inflatable and rigid-inflatable boats, is expanding its production site in Mer after landing a €9 million (about $9.7 million) contract with the French Navy.
The deal is pushing immediate growth at the company’s facility in Mer, a town in the Loir-et-Cher department in central France. Sillinger says it will add 1,000 square meters—about 10,800 square feet—of space and continue hiring beyond its current workforce of 65 employees to meet the increased workload.
The expansion is a concrete response to a single, high-value public-sector order: more floor space to build boats, and more staff to keep pace with delivery schedules and quality requirements tied to a defense customer.
A $9.7 million French Navy contract drives the expansion
Sillinger’s €9 million (about $9.7 million) order from the Marine nationale—the French Navy—covers the production of inflatable and semi-rigid boats. For a company of 65 people, the contract represents a step-change in volume and operational demands.
The planned 1,000-square-meter (about 10,800-square-foot) site expansion is intended to absorb that ramp-up. The company has also signaled additional recruiting as it scales up to fulfill the order.
A tight hiring market in Loir-et-Cher’s metalworking sector
Sillinger’s growth comes as local industry faces mounting recruitment pressure. According to UIMM Val de Loire, an employers’ group for France’s metalworking industries, Loir-et-Cher has 94 member companies in the sector, representing 7,330 employees out of an estimated potential of 8,600—an indicator of how hard it has become to fill jobs locally.
The same industry group expects a wave of retirements in coming years, creating an estimated need to replace roughly 400 jobs per year in Loir-et-Cher. For Sillinger, hiring at the same time competition for technical workers is intensifying compresses the timeline for scaling up.
Still, the French Navy order gives the company a rare advantage: a guaranteed public customer and a full order book that supports investment in facilities and net new hiring.
Scaling up brings quality, schedule, and staffing challenges
Supplying inflatable and semi-rigid boats to the French Navy means meeting strict standards and deadlines. The Mer site expansion is necessary, but it doesn’t solve everything: the company also has to train and integrate new hires while maintaining the pace required by an institutional defense contract.
UIMM Val de Loire also warns that metalworking headcount is expected to decline in the years ahead even as activity remains strong—retirements may open positions, but qualified candidates do not automatically appear. That leaves Sillinger recruiting from the same limited pool as larger industrial groups with deeper HR resources.
At 65 employees, Sillinger’s size cuts both ways: it can move quickly and stay cohesive, but any unfilled vacancy weighs more heavily when the company is executing a €9 million (about $9.7 million) contract for a demanding customer.
Regional industry adjusts to new labor rules and an auto transition
Sillinger’s announcement also lands during a period of change for manufacturers in France’s Centre-Val de Loire region. A new metalworking collective bargaining agreement that took effect in early 2024 reshaped job classifications and pay scales, adding administrative and workplace complexity for companies managing growth.
Loir-et-Cher’s auto industry—an important local employer—continues to strain the regional labor market as the shift to electric vehicles reshuffles which skills are in demand. In that environment, Sillinger’s defense and civil-security niche is described as offering more stability than consumer-facing manufacturing segments that are still adapting.
For the Mer area’s job market, the French Navy order is more than a purchase agreement: it signals that defense manufacturing remains a durable niche capable of funding facility expansion and new hiring even as other parts of the industrial economy navigate uncertainty.
