Just to try to tie up this thread well and truly.. The clutch of small and medium size manutacturers around St Etienne took a hell of a beating in the 80s, and there's no prizes for guessing who gave it to them. If you don't know StEienne it is/was an arms, sewing machine and bicycle manufacturing town surrounded by coal mines-the whole setamidst some beautiful scenery not far from thr Massif Central mountain range. All of a sudden everything disappeared, arms, bikes and coal mining. Those bike companies that survived tried to form an group to enable them to produce entire groupsets in order to try to fend off Shimano and Suntour. The group was called STRATEC and was composed off, as far as I can recall, the remains of Simplex, Nervar, Lyotard and Pelissier, and the relics of CLB and Mafac. Theoretically these manufacturers had the plant and the know-how to produce a range of quality products but it just never happened.. they were all too far gone before they even joined up.
Norris Lockley...shedding a few more tears, but drinking a glass of French Cote-du-Rhone..