Founded in 1908 in Romans-sur-Isère, the Deval printing company has spanned five generations, keeping pace with changing printing techniques and market needs. With its decades-old Creusot-Loire presses, the company embodied rare craftsmanship. But this industrial heritage was not enough to overcome the challenges of a rapidly changing industry.
Simon Rouxel, a fifth-generation manager, confided: "We have been faced with extremely high raw material costs, on top of the Covid period, which has already weakened us."
Like many French printers, Deval has been hard hit by the rising cost of raw materials, notably paper, and energy. These constraints have been exacerbated by digitalization, which has gradually eroded the traditional markets for printed paper in favor of digital media.
Simon Rouxel explains: "What we lacked was know-how. We thought the machine would fail us one day, but it was the human resources that were lacking."
In addition to these economic issues, the closure of the Deval printing works highlights a structural problem: dependence on technical know-how. The Creusot-Loire press, essential for printing local newspapers L'Impartial and L'Écho Drôme-Ardèche the machine's design required expertise that had been handed down from generation to generation. However, two cases of sick leave among employees trained on the machine brought production to a standstill, precipitating the decision to liquidate. From now on, newspapers L'Impartial and L'Écho Drôme-Ardèche are produced by a subcontractor located in the Hérault region of France.
