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temples or fronts were placed into a tumbling barrel, which
contained wooden chips and wax to round their edges and polish
them.
B&L worked hard to ensure the quality of its sunglasses
during both the fabrication of parts for sunglasses and the
assembly of those parts into finished sunglasses. Regardless
where the parts were fabricated and assembled into finished
sunglasses, B&L maintained strict quality standards and specifi-
cations that the parts and finished sunglasses were required to
meet. Specifications for all sunglasses were established by the
specifications group at the B&L Frame Center in Rochester.
Establishment by B&L of New Sunglass Assembly Facilities
During the 1970s, B&L experienced tremendous growth in its
sunglass sales. Much of that growth was in international
markets, especially Western Europe and Southeast Asia. By 1982,
approximately half of B&L's sunglass sales were outside the
United States. To help meet that demand, B&L increased the
output of its sunglass production facilities in Rochester during
the 1970s and continued to do so during the years at issue.
Prior to 1982, B&L operated a sunglass assembly facility in
France that it decided to close. Because of the tremendous
growth of its sunglass sales in Europe and elsewhere, it needed
(1) to replace that facility in order to supply its European
markets and (2) to expand its worldwide sunglass production.
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