Background and business

PROVENCALE S.A. dates back to 1933, when a company was created in the Hautes-Alpes to work a marble quarry for the production of aggregate and powders. These industrial aggregates were used to make mosaic tiles.

The DELFAUX family took over this company and changed its name to PROVENCALE S.A. in 1952.

Riding the wave of post-war growth, PROVENCALE S.A. developed its sites in the ‘50s to offer a customer base consisting of tile, coating and paint manufacturers a complete range of marble aggregates and powders.

It thus created:

• A plant in the Hautes-Alpes to process blue, black and green marble, in addition to white,
• Two plants in the Var for pink marble
• A plant in the Pyrénées-Orientales in 1959 for extremely pure white marble, after three years of studies and various sites.

This last plant very soon became the largest and began to process other colours including red and blue.
During the ‘60s, marble became more widely used with the appearance of prefabrications, hydraulic and plastic coatings, and PVC floor coverings.

PROVENCALE S.A. thus opened a unit in the Gard and extended its range of products manufactured using the white marble from the Pyrenees.

The 1970s marked a turning point with the gradual disappearance of the tile market and the strong growth of coatings and paints. Some plants were shut down, while others increased their capacity and improved their technicality. PROVENCALE S.A. went from being a quarry manager to a chemist and, although production did not grow substantially, its products gained in quality with the launch of the MIKHART range.

The ‘80s saw the return to growth of PROVENCALE S.A. which multiplied its production five-fold over the decade, firmly establishing the MIKHART calcium carbonates in the paint market, while keeping its traditional clientele for coloured marble aggregates.

At the end of the 1980s calcium carbonates were developed for the production of plastics.

The 1990s focused on the development of fine products, and the export market developed further afield. This resulted in an increase in sales operations abroad and in the company’s reputation.
Provençale s.a developed the plant in Pouzilhac and its Calgar range, and in 1999 added a unit dedicated to producing soil enriching agents for agriculture. At the same time, it modernised the other sites, increasing the production capacities of the plant in Espira de l’Agly, and starting up its website www.provencale.com in 1998.

The first years of the new millennium will be marked by the drive to constantly improve the integration of the extraction and transformation sites into the natural and corporate environment while keeping up our dynamics in the beneficiation of current and future deposits.

PROVENCALE S.A, is – through its history – two or three large plants:

Pouzilhac, in the Gard, where a quarry of ivory marble is worked.	Espira de l’Agly – Cases de Pène, in the Pyrénées Orientales, working the white marble of the Pyrenees	And one subsidiary: MARCAEL, which processes white marble in southern Spain. In the company’s quality system, this subsidiary is regarded as a supplier.