History
Entrepreneurship, invention, engineering and technology are at the heart of Labaronne-Citaf history. Discover here the story of Labaronne-Citaf and the one of its flagship product, the flexible tank.
At the beginning of the company, the flexible tank. Also called bladder, soft cover, flexible pouch or flexible container, the flexible tank is a means of flexible storage for liquid which is more economical and practical than a rigid reserve. Once filled, it looks like a large “pillow” which explains its common name of “pillow tank”.
History
Buyout of the company by 2 employees
For nearly 10 years, several managers succeeded each other. Under the governance of Jacques Cellier, Gérard Haricot and Michel Charton took over the management. In 2004, Denis Aubel bought the company and chaired it until June 2017, the year in which the company was placed in receivership. On July 6,..Read More
Death of Jacques Labaronne
The flexible tank market is expanding rapidly. Jacques is developing connections with the Middle East. But when he returns from a customer appointment, he gets a car accident from which he will not survive. An entrepreneur, Jacques Cellier, bought the company and renamed it Labaronne-Citaf, in tribute to the family..Read More
Moving from Tours to Vienna (Isère)
Attracted by more favourable tax conditions (thanks to the Isère deputy Louis Mermaz), and always with the ambition to promote his product, André Labaronne set up his small business in Vienna. There are many forest fires in the area and the tanks meet the needs of the firefighters. The various..Read More
Improvement of the flexible tank
In close collaboration with his brother Georges, a winegrower, André Labaronne has developed his tank and marketed it to farmers in the region. But contracts are not enough for the company to grow and CITAF is in difficulty. Always looking for improvements, he is looking to optimize his patent for..Read More
Moving to Tours
The market is hard to create in France… André Labaronne leaves Paris for Touraine, where he can ensure family support. So he settled in Tours, which has become the new fiefdom of the Labaronne family. He moved also the CITAF company’s head office there and appointed Claude Touchon, his brother-in-law,..Read More
Death of André Labaronne
Thanks to Jacques Labaronne’s commercial fibre, the company began to expand internationally. Nevertheless, his father will not have time to take advantage of it. On June 16, 1974, André Labaronne died of his illness at the age of 51.
Revision of the 1st patent
Attached to his first inventions, André Labaronne remains convinced that his transport tanks meet a real need. Therefore, he decided to advance his concept, by taking inspiration from the improvements made to freestanding pools, to redesign a prototype.
3rd patent of invention
Thanks to his experience in the flexible, André Labaronne is closely interested in the principle of self-supporting pools. He optimized the systems, already in place at that time, and developed a prototype of a “freestanding pool” designed to eliminate all the known disadvantages of freestanding pools.
Conquering Paris
As the activity progressed, the Algerian war precipitated the departure of André and the entire Labaronne family to France. He set up CITAF in the Paris region, more precisely in Brunoy.
Birth of CITAF company
André Labaronne creates the company CITAF – “CITernes Algérie France”. Based in Algiers and determined to commercialize his invention, he began to manufacture his first prototype alone, which he managed to rent to Sahara, an oil company.
2nd patent of invention
At the end of 1957, André Labaronne developed his invention. He decided to separate the principle of flexible tanks from the transport part, developed in his first patent. This storage solution dedicated to liquids was registered on October 12, 1957 under the name of “flexible tank”.
1st filing patent of the invention
Son of French winegrowers living in Algeria, André Labaronne is fascinated by the conquest of the desert. However, he notes that the tankers that bring water back empty. It was then that he had the revolutionary idea of developing a “flexible tank” that – once emptied – took up less..Read More