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 Turnhout () is a Belgium, Belgian Municipalities in Belgium, municipality and city located in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp. The municipality comprises only the city of Turnhout proper. ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. The company operated from two manufacturing sites in Belgium, one in Turnhout (

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

) and one in

Fleurus Fleurus (; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It has been the site of four major battles. The municipality consists of the following districts: Brye, Heppignies, Fleurus, Lambusart, Saint-Am ...

(

Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...

History

The company was founded in 1913 by Henri Proost, who previously worked at

Brepols Brepols is a Belgian publishing house. Once, it was one of the largest printing companies in the world and one of the main employers in Turnhout (Belgium). Besides its printing business, Brepols is also active as a publisher. Formerly well known ...

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 priest ...

s. The company continued this way until the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

, which causes a large decline of the need for church books. In 1962 the company changed from

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...

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). History of color printing Woodblock printing on textiles preceded printing on paper in both Ea ...

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 The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...

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

, and became one of the biggest manufacturers in the world of books for children,

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

, educational books and illustrated books. After being a family-owned business for about 83 years the company was acquired by LIBERfabrica plc (

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

) in 1996, which in turn was acquired by

Chevrillon Philippe Industrie Chevrillon may refer to: Places * Chevrillon Lake Chevrillon Lake is a freshwater body crossed by the Chibougamau River, in the southern part of Eeyou Istchee James Bay (municipality), in the administrative region of Nord-du-Québec, in the pr ...

(CPI) of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

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