Factory workers stay on after win

TWENTY TWO STAFF ARE STILL WORKING IN A COSMETICS FACTORY IN BRITTANY DESPITE WINNING €500K EACH ON LOTO IN DECEMBER 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,