History (1988): Rhône-Poulenc to Invest FF50 Million in Floppy Disks

Rhône-Poulenc Systems (RPS) is going to invest over FF50 million to enlarge its capacities in manufacturing 3.5-inch FDs.

This investment consists of an automatic assembly line in Albi, France, to finish the FDs and a new induction machine in Nangi’ plant.

The factory should be able to produce up to 15 million 3.5-inch disks per year.

RPS is planning to increase its share in the European market, from 15% to 20% in 1989.

In company’s opinion, the 2MB FD for the IBM P-S2 and compatibles, should allow the 3.5-inch size to overreach the additional sales of 5.25- and 8-inch FDs in 3 years.

Nevertheless, the French group is actually focusing on its primary activity: chemistry. They just got rid of their office-automation subsidiary, Regma. We would’nt be surprised if RPS sold its FDs activity [RPS was buy back by Boeder in 1990. Editor].

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠1, volume ≠1, published on February 1988.