Laurent Koscielny donates €600k to save home-town's accordion factory

Laurent Koscielny

Arsenal and France center-back Laurent Koscielny has not forgotten his roots, as he has donated €600k to help his country’s oldest accordion factory.

The Frenchman moved to London in 2010 following his move to Arsenal, and has been a key cog in the Gunners defence in the past seasons.

The factory which is located in Tulle in the Correze, is his home town and also the constituency of President Francois Hollande.

The company, Maugein which was founded in 1919 had been threatened recently with closure and along with it the loss of 20 jobs. Reports have suggested that Koscielny is part of an investment group, who had put up €600,000 (£495,000) in a bid to save the factory.

Bernard Combes, the local mayor is an adviser to the President, and had contacted Koscielny regarding the plight of the factory.

In 2012, the Maugein factory had a turn-over of over €800,000, as they built accordions from the scratch. However, it has been severely hit by both competition and the on-set of cheaper instruments, which are made in Eastern Europe and China. Last December, the company went into receivership.

The Mayor had said in December that the Maugein accordion, who had hired 300 workers in 1939 is a symbol of the industrial heritage of the region.

Koscielny, 28, whose family is of Polish origin earns £2.6m a year with Arsenal.