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Description: | Huntley & Palmers had appointed a commission agent for France in 1859. The first overseas representative Joseph Leete secured a Royal Warrant to supply Napoleon III of France. In 1878 at the Paris Exhibition the company was awarded the grand prix, a gold medal that created a high demand in France for their biscuits. However French customs authorities were pursuing restrictive policies and even exacted a duty for each tin that was temporarily admitted and later returned to Reading once it was empty. Leete managed to get this provision relaxed slightly, as France was a crucial market accounting for 50 to 55% of the company's continental trade. Trade with France declined further in the early twentieth century due to continuing heavy tariffs and unfavourable exchange rates. In 1924 the company tried to solve these problems by opening a factory in France at La Courneuve, an industrial part of Paris near St Denis. Fifteen of the most important varieties of biscuits were manufactured with some old machinery shipped out from Reading. The Paris factory was never a financial success and closed in 1951. | Format: | image/jpeg | License: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=gateway&f=generic_sitetext%2ehtm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&cms_con_core_subtype%3acms_con_text_what=copyright&%3acms_sys_group=%22sopse%22 | Rights holder: | Reading University Library | Subjects: | trade advertising advertisement | Temporal: | start=1955-01-01; end=1955-12-31; | Source: | Sense of place SE | Identifier: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | image/jpeg | Go to resource |
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