Proost International Book Production was a Belgian manufacturer and supplier for the book publishing industry. It was one of the companies of the printing ''valley'' around Turnhout, Belgium. The company operated from two manufacturing sites in Belgium, one in Turnhout ( Flanders) and one in Fleurus ( Wallonia).

History

The company was founded in 1913 by Henri Proost, who previously worked at Brepols as director of the churchbook division. He founded his company in the ''Otterstraat'' in Turnhout and specialized in printing and binding of bibles and

missal A missal is a liturgical book containing instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the liturgical year. Versions differ across liturgical tradition, period, and purpose, with some missals intended to enable a pries ...

s. The company continued this way until the Second Vatican Council, which causes a large decline of the need for church books. In 1962 the company changed from monochrome to

color printing Color printing or colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color (as opposed to simpler black and white or monochrome printing). Any natural scene or color photograph can be optically and physiologically dissected into three ...

and diversified its business beyond religious books. In 1976 Proost built a new plant on an industrial estate near Turnhout, because it had outgrown its old plant in the centre of the city. At the same time the first four-color CMYK web-press was installed, which could print on continuous rolls of paper. In 1990 the company continued to expand and acquire a second printing plant in Fleurus, and became one of the biggest manufacturers in the world of books for children,

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

, educational books and illustrated books. After being a family-owned business for about 83 years the company was acquired by LIBERfabrica plc ( United Kingdom) in 1996, which in turn was acquired by

Chevrillon Philippe Industrie Chevrillon may refer to: Places * Chevrillon Lake, Quebec, Canada Persons * André Chevrillon (1864–1957), a French writer *Benjamin Antier Benjamin Antier, real name Benjamin Chevrillon, (21 March 1787 – 25 April 1870), was a 19th-century ...

(CPI) of France in 1999. The entire group operated in five countries and employed about 3400 people. Proost returned to Belgian hands in June 2009 following a takeover by the investment group Axxess Partners. In 2012 the company filed for bankruptcy, but was able to make a new start. Despite a continuing poor economic climate, Proost took over the Slovak company Qatena in 2013 and hoped to strengthen its chances of survival in the print sector. However, it did not help and Proost closed its doors definitively in 2015.

Sources

* De Turnhoutse Kempen, haar economische en sociale betekenis, Vlaams Economisch Verbond, pp. 88–90

References

{{reflist Companies based in Antwerp Province

History

See also

Sources

References