Bergougnan

"François Michelin sets foot in the firm in Colombes in June 1965 by purchasing the shareholding of the American group B.F. Goodrich, which had started to open a subsidiary in France as early as 1910. A somewhat convoluted financial operation, at the end of which it is noted that Michelin holds, through the Société des procédés industriels modernes and Bergougnan—two businesses it controls—over 25 percent of Kléber, the second-largest French tire company and the first in manufactured rubber."

"After long hesitation about what action to take, François Michelin provided some support to the ailing company. Executives from the parent company were “injected” into Bergougnan. Technicians came to finalize the development of various products: steel-reinforced conveyor belts called “Bergacier,” offshore hoses also with steel reinforcement, etc. However, the installations as a whole were outdated, management was too precarious, and Michelin did not intend to indefinitely burden itself with this enterprise, which could offer nothing in return. And Bergougnan, to keep its factories running, had engaged, at the beginning of the sixties, in a price war that greatly troubled its competitor Kléber. The circumstances were therefore favorable for François Michelin and Paul Huvelin, then head of Kléber, to meet."