Regarding the last contri. on this company, France-Loire have been outside St Etienne for some time and were ceratinly at Andrezieux-Boutheon in 1981. The more famous Mercier company were based in rue de Gutenberg, not far from the centre of St Etienne until the company went into liquidation, regretably, in the mid-80s.
Whether or not France-Loire actually own the rights to the Mercier name I'm not certain; I notice that there is an outfit in the States using the name now. They wouldn't tell me if they had bought the sole rights. However the story in France is that on learning of the demise of the St Etienne Mercier company, renowned of course for sponsoring all-time greats such as "Pou-Pou Poulidor throught his long career, and the Dutchman Joop Zoottemelk, a wealthy industrialist, supermarket-chain owner, and bike fanatic bought the name to ensure it did not leave French soil. He apparently ordered a range of bikes for his supermarkets launched under the brand-name of "Le Velo de Mercier". This decal can now be seen on a range of fairly mundane bikes, ATBs, juvenile stuff etc in his supermarkets. The name sometimes appears on the" top-of-the-range" road bikes I mentioned in my first contri., but just as likely the whole range will, tragically, carry "Poulidor" on the down-tube.
This last summer I decided to make the pilgrimage again - after a long break - to St. Etienne to look up the old factories of Mercier, Automoto, Manufrance, Cizeron, Cyclo Stronglight , St Etienne Cycles, Vitus and the rest. However most have gone, or are unrecognisable as former bike factories. The one that remains most magnificently, on the side of a grand boulevard not far from the city centre, is the Manufrance - Hirondelle factory. This vast, vast, imposing stone edifice, built in art-nouveau style, has been fully renovated and now houses the Chamber of Commerce and Business for St Etienne and the region.
Not far from Manufrance the fully renovated Museum of Art and Industry is situated. This houses a permanent exhibition of the region's former cycle industry together with exhibits from most leading French builders. I even recall a Rene Herse cyclo-cross bike built with Nervex Pro lugs - certainly not one of his best efforts. Last summer the museum also held a retrospective exhibition about the first 100 years of the Tour de France. Just sheer magic.!
Cheerio
Norris Lockley