Avranche, France

Avranche factory, former Quadri Metal, plant came to Polychrome from Rhone Poulanc when they divested their Regma, graphic arts dealer organization then handling Polychrome plates.      Thomas Bittner who was then running Polychrome Europe saw both an opportunity in buying the package and at the same time the threat if we did not buy and Regma went to a competitor.        Polychrome was then producing Copperkote, bimetallic long running plate, and was familiar with the type of market Quadirmetal served.       Gene Golda and I were invited to visit Avarnche factory and were happy to see their capability of producing real big plates which our plant in Newark could not produce.       We were fortunate to have had the factory as it turned out the line could be modified to produce CTX with minimum investment.        Since the multimetal business was dying due to the trend in shorter runs, Avanche factory committed to making CTX.     They worked tirelessly with Osterode from where the base positive plates came, Clark and Soest film plant from where the silver halide emulsion came and with Corporate R&D  in Carlstadt to make the product.      The CTX name was coined by Bob Hallman to signify and promote cooperation across the R&D organization and plants.    As it turned out  everyone's cooperation really made CTX production successful.      Unfortunately I found only one picture (so far) from the many Avranche visits I made.