Factory workers stay on after win

TWENTY-TWO workers at a cosmetics factory in Brittany are still in their posts, despite each winning €500k when their lottery syndicate’s lucky numbers were drawn.

The staff won a total of €12m on December 28, but all of them are still working at the BCM Cosmétique factory in the Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany.

A representatives from the winners told Le Parisien that the syndicate had been running for three years, with each of the 22 participants putting down €8 per month on the same set of numbers.

The syndicate’s organiser learnt of the win just before he went to bed on 28 December and told the paper that he passed an anxious 45 minutes looking for the ticket, which turned up in a folder where he would not usually have put it.

The winners range from 32 to 60 in age and none of them are in management grades. They each took home a cheque for €545,456 from the bank yesterday.

The money will reportedly be used for a variety of projects, from replacing an old Renault Clio, to going on holiday, to home renovations.

The lucky employees had hoped to retain anonymity after their windfall, but this was scuppered when the Mayor of Vitré announced their win as part of the traditional ceremony of good wishes for the New Year.

Despite this, a spokesman for BCM Cosmétique insists that it will respect the privacy of the winners and that the company itself has no clue as to their identit - the 22 winners make up 4.5% of the 500-strong workforce in the factory at Vitré.
Photo:Flickr Andrea Castelli,