The Goncourt 2020? is printed in Lonrai in the department of Orne in the Normandy region With a few weeks of delay due to the confinement and waiting for the bookshops to reopen, the Goncourt finally designated its winner on Monday 30 November. It is the writer Hervé Le Tellier with his novel The Anomaly published by Editions Gallimard, which won the prestigious prize. A prize considered the Holy Grail for printers since it alone brings more than 350?000 sales per award-winning book and therefore as many reprints. This is why only a few minutes after the announcement of the result, the presses at the Normandie Roto printing house in Lonrai were already running at full speed.
Day and night printing to meet demand
Interviewed by France Bleu Normandie, the director of the printing works Christophe Tillon explains that they know nothing before the official announcement. Hence an immediate battle shakedown. «? We have six presses in the printing plant. Practically half of the factory is mobilized for the Goncourt day and night. We're running at speeds of 70?000 per day ?", confides Christophe Tillon to the news channel. To respond to this sudden increase in activity, the printer is hiring additional employees. Because in addition to printing, the covers and strips have to be put on each book, which requires the mobilization of staff.
Normandie Roto is accustomed to literary prizes and the Prix Goncourt. In particular, she has printed the famous prize four years in a row, between 2015 and 2018. Every year, the printing house shares the awards with the two other major book printers Floch and CPI.
