Hi Marten, Yes, I know about this brand.
Their best know bike was the Hirondelle brand, but they also made arms and sewing machines. In 1898, the company employed 1000 workers and, by 1976, this had risen to 3800. By 1984, more than 14000 employees of sub-contractors and suppliers in the St Etienne region also depended upon Manufrance, which purchased more than 30% of their products.
It was a very successful mail order company that was created in 1885 and played a big part in creating the bicycle component manufacturing infrastructure at St Etienne. After the original owner died in 1944 and, from them on, it went into steady decline until 1979 when it filed for bankruptcy. It finally disappeared in 1986 when the tooling and patents were sold.
Raymond Poulidor worked for the company after retiring from racing and Manufrance manufactured a brand of bikes with his name. Some of these were fairly high end.
Many French bicycle component manufacturers owe their existence to the success of Manufrance.
I have recently purchased a NOS Raymond Poulidor bike made by Manufrance. It was built in 1978 (I think) and has Shimano forged ends, Vitus tubing and pretty close clearances. As far as I know, it was supplied built with Shimano components. Not a high end frame, but not bad. Most Manufrance bikes that you see for sale are of lesser quality.
I hope that this helps. All the best,
Peter Rogers Barrie, Ontario, Canada
--------------------------------------------------
From: "M-gineering" <info@m-gineering.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 3:42 AM
Cc: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR] Manu France
> Anthony Taylor wrote:
>> All,
>>
>> Does anyone recognise this brand?
>
>
>
> French mailorder catalogue which already existed around 1900, later bikes
> as this one are mostly cheap.
>
> Full name used to be Manufacture Francaise d'Armes de Saint Etienne
>
> mvg
>
> Marten Gerritsen
> Kiel Windeweer
> Netherlands