France mourns the death of 'Michelin Man'
Edouard Michelin with France president Jacques Chirac at a Paris car showNews of Edouard Michelin's death in a boat accident on Friday was greeted with dismay by French political and business leaders, with President Jacques Chirac leading tributes.
Michelin, the head of the iconic French tyre maker, died at the age of 42 while on a fishing trip off the Ile de Sein island in Brittany, western France. The cause of the fatal accident was not immediately clear.
Frace president Chirac mourned Michelin, one of France's most promising company executives.
"At the head of a company that has a special place for French people, Edouard Michelin had considerably modernised his company and made it into a universally renowned French industrial champion," Chirac said in a statement.
Michelin was regarded as one of France's leading business executives and his death cast a particular shadow at a time when France has been going through a crisis of confidence amid political scandals and disagreement over economic reform.
"For a new generation of French company heads, this is really very cruel," Laurence Parisot, head of France's MEDEF employers group told French radio.
The French local authority in Brest said the alarm was raised when Michelin and local fisherman Guillaume Normant failed to return from a fishing trip. Michelin's body was later found but rescuers failed to recover any trace of Normant's.
The Michelin company, the world's largest tyre manufacturer, said that Michel Rollier, who had been joint managing partner along with Edouard Michelin, would "assure the continuity of the company's management."
Michelin Man
Edouard Michelin's great grand-father set up the company with his brother Andre in 1889 and their brainchild quickly became embedded in French culture.
In 1898, the group brought out the Michelin Man, a jovial, rotund figure made of tyres who came to symbolize the company.
At the turn of the 20th century, Michelin then published its first Red Guide.
The guide encouraged people to use their cars to travel around France and gave advice on the best restaurants and hotels in the region, resulting in the coveted "Michelin Star" awards given out to dining establishments today.
Edouard Michelin entered into the prestigious family set-up in 1985, armed with an engineering degree from the Ecole Centrale de Paris.
He had a stint in France's navy from 1987 to 1988 before going back to the Michelin group where he held various posts in areas such as production and sales.
Edouard then succeeded his father Francois, who had run Michelin for more than 40 years, as head of the company in 1999.
Faced with growing competition from global rivals such as Bridgestone, Edouard Michelin decided to cut 7,500 jobs in 1999 and restructure the company's north American activities to improve the group's profitability.
The decision to cut the jobs led to an attack on Edouard Michelin by then French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who called on workers and politicians to unite in protest at the move.
However, Edouard Michelin rode through the backlash, saying the job cuts were necessary to enable his family's company to compete with global rivals in Japan and the United States.
Edouard Michelin had presided over the company's annual shareholder meeting only two weeks ago. His warning that it would be hard for the group to achieve its financial targets for the year due to higher commodity prices sent Michelin shares sliding earlier this month.
Edouard Michelin leaves behind a wife and six children.
