Cataroux
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"“Since we can no longer sell tires, let’s sell something else,” the Michelins decide. All the materials gathered under the hangars or in the yards, to build a new factory in Cataroux, north of Clermont-Ferrand, accumulate as the construction site is halted. There are already piles of wood, cotton, machines, tons of scrap metal. Selling them would allow for paying salaries. The idea is immediately accepted. The house’s salesmen, the employees—from the janitor to the engineer—hit the roads to sell off all these useless stocks. For cash. The fresh money that comes in saves the company."
"His studies completed, he, like everyone else, dons the work overalls. In 1951, under a false identity, he works as a fitter at the Carmes factory where, in a small workshop, he files pieces of scrap metal to a hundredth of a millimeter “to learn the trade.” He arrives on foot or by bicycle, punctual, anonymous, with a bag on his back. He rotates through different positions: in “secret,” that is to say with the workers on three-shift rotations, for two years, with the “travelers” of the House for his tour of France with garages, with the drivers who shuttle between the factories of Carmes, Cataroux, and Estaing."