page_title: Vichy
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Vichy / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Pastilles de Vichy. Brand: H. Moinet (http://www.moinet-vichy-sante.com/). Tablets are labeled "Bassin de Vichy".
context_page_description: Vichy is a city in the Allier department of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais.
  It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the seat of government of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944. The term Vichyste indicated collaboration with the Vichy regime, often carrying a pejorative connotation.
context_section_description: The city was first noted for its thermal cures in Roman times. Its waters come from springs such as the Vichy Celestins and Vichy Saint-Yorre.
  Vichy Pastilles (made in Vichy) are octagon-shaped candies made from soda contained in the spring waters.
  The health and beauty business, with the laboratories of the L'Oréal company, also make it possible to publicize the city's name to a worldwide audience under the Vichy brand. (This French website discusses the history of this brand.)
  Unlike the neighbouring communes on the Allier such as industrial Montluçon and administrative seat Moulins, Vichy's economy is centred on the tertiary sector, with companies like the Compagnie de Vichy developing the health and well-being sector to mitigate the decline of medical hydrotherapy. The local market, open on Sundays, attracts shoppers from tens of kilometres around.
  The closing of two important local employers, the Manurhin company and the Sediver company, has reduced employment in the Vichy basin. Job creation by developing companies such as the NSE electronics company or the Satel call center company may not completely compensate for the removal of jobs which will result from this, despite the internet tour operator Karavel's establishment of a new call center in May 2005.
  Nevertheless, the two most important employers of the city belong to the public sector: the hospital (1,120 employees), and the town hall (500).
  Since 1989 Vichy has been one of the 7 sites of the European Total Quality Institute (Institut Européen de la Qualité Totale).
  The Pôle Universitaire de Vichy (previously called Pôle Universitaire et Technologique Lardy), born from a project of thermal waste land rehabilitation and launched during the mid-nineties, is an economic priority. This 9,000 m² (2.2 acres) campus accommodates 600 students in the downtown area, in ten areas of study including the fields of biotechnology, international trade, multi-media and languages. The CAVILAM - Alliance Française (Centre of Live Approaches to Languages and the Media), created in Vichy in 1964, is located in the Pôle Universitaire de Vichy.
  The Palace of the Congresses is a venue primarily for the conferences of trade associations and learned societies. The structure is 1,800 m² (19,000 sq ft) in area, including two plenary rooms and fifteen multi-use rooms. With 25,000 visitors yearly, the conferences must carry the economic role once held by the hydrotherapy industry, which today counts only 12,000 patients each year. The hydrotherapy business will now have to reorganise itself to take a less strict therapeutic-only role, and adapt to patients' stays shorter than the traditional three weeks.
caption: A tin of Vichy Pastilles
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