GenevaLunch

24 heures, Fre - The face of Etoy, a mainly agricultural village only 15 years ago, has been changing rapidly, and the rate of change is about to speed up. Ferring, a pharmaceutical multinational, settled in the town in 2006 and several large commercial outlets set up shop - Darty and Hornbach are just two. At least four large international companies are expected to announce soon that they are moving to Etoy. The reason for the sudden boom is that the Bonny initiative comes to an end in December 2007. It was created by Bern to encourage foreign companies to invest in under-industrialized parts of the country, notably the Jura during the watchmaking crisis a few years ago. The stretch from Aubonne to St. Prex, with Etoy's Littoral Park at the heart of it, is also covered by Bonny. (continue reading)→

Flowers blooming in a vineyard near Etoy, Vaud, Switzerland the last week of December 2006.

Just-picked gala apples from a farm in Etoy, Vaud, 10 October 2006

Editor's note:This article, slightly longer than most of GL's local reporting, can be used to improve your English or your French by reading the original with this text. GL will publish one regional news article like this each week.

24 heures, Raphael Ebinger, Fre - Etoy residents are circulating a petition to save their "Laitérie," one of two small grocery shops in the village. Etoy thus joins the ranks of small towns along La Côte, the lakefront stretch of the Lake Geneva region, where family grocers are closing their doors. For once the reason is not competition from new, nearby supermarkets, but rather the closing of the local milk producers association which wants to sell the building. (continue reading)→

24 heures, Fre - Etoy has been steadily building up its inventory of commercial successes, adding Hornbach, then Darty in 2005 to the list of businesses filling its Littoral Park industrial zone. Now those close to economic development activities in the area are saying that Francis Sermet, former head of DEWS (the economic development group for western Switzerland), will be bringing in the first administrative company, Japanese medical group Sunstar, for whom he works. (continue reading)→