Faced with difficulties for several years, the Deval printing company suddenly closed its doors in November in Romans-sur-Isère. It was placed in compulsory liquidation after sick leave which shut down the press.
After 116 years of activity, the Deval printing works in Romans-sur-Isère, a family business since 1908, has closed its doors. This independent printing company had faced financial difficulties in recent years, but an event precipitated its downfall. The company was placed in judicial liquidation mid-November. The printing works run until a few weeks ago by Simon Rouxel, the fifth generation of the Deval family, was located on the boulevards of Romans until the mid-1970s before being transferred near the Guillermoz stadium. She employed up to 30 people.
The golden age before the first pitfalls
“It was a real anthill in the printing house” says Simon Rouxel. “Me walking around in it as a child and running behind everyone and behind the machines, it's still this feeling that I have deep inside me. With a lot of noise,The machines were running at full speed“. With the printing of weekly newspapers, the Impartial and L'écho valentinois, which became the Drôme-Ardèche echo, books, flyers, catalogs, business cards, the printing house was doing well. And then came the first problems: “we faced extremely high raw material costs. We went through the Covid period. Which caused us a lot of harm, but state aid was there to save us. And we will say that the post-Covid period was complicated with a very hard restart of activity. There is a circulation on paper which is eroding year after year. Afterwards, as I often say, L'Impartial and l'Echo have never been read as much as today. Except that now we are read in paper and digital.
A press without drivers
If the printing press has always coped, two sick leaves dealt the final blow. “Our machine was a Creusot-Loire. A brand that no longer exists and was liquidated 20 years ago. It is know-how that is passed down from generation to generation to run this machine bought by my grandfather”. Simon continues : “unfortunately, two of my employees who were driving this machine fell ill. And unfortunately, it was the know-how that got us into trouble because from one day to the next, I didn't have more human resources to run this press. I had always told myself that one day this was the machine that was going to fail us and perhaps lead to the company's death. Unfortunately, destiny had it otherwise. We will say that he is the man who unfortunately pushed the company into the red“.
Two weeklies still printed…but in the Gard
In a hurry, Simon Rouxel sent L'Impartial and L'Echo to be printed in Dijon. But financially, it no longer held up. Deval lost 50% of its turnover. The printing company was placed in liquidation on November 18. The 7 employees are on technical unemployment. The journalists, for their part, joined the headquarters of the company Deval Presse Info in the center of Romans where the articles are still written. L’Impartial and L’Echo Drôme-Ardèche. But now, the two weeklies are printed in Gallargues-le-Montueux, between Nîmes and Montpellier.
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