As France’s 6th industrial region, the Centre region is characterised by the diversity of its economic fabric, in which the automobile sector is the leading industrial employer. The health, cosmetics and food-processing sectors also play a major part in the region’s economy – all of them sectors that participate in the development and strengthening of the region’s plastics technology sector by providing it with “customer” industries : plastic packaging for processed foods and health products, and technical parts for the automobile and aeronautics sectors.