At the time in the 80s when the French bike industry was fast falling apart after a rapid decline in export sales, and in the faceof cheap imports from Taiwan., Mercier, one of the icons of that industry - remember a certain darling of the French populace Raymond Poulidor, Poupou-the Eternal Second - became one of the casualties
Down in the Forez area of the south of the Auvergne region, in the industrial city of St Etienne, heart of the French cycle industry, famous names were biting the dust. Already from Rue de Gutenberg firms such as Cizeron, the manufacturer of bikes with names such as Jacques Anquetil, Francesco Moser (Yes the French -made variety,)Raphael Geminiani and Louison Bobet, had already closed and Mercier - known for Mercier, Francis Pelissier, AndreLeducq etc etc was also ready to close its doors.
The story goes that the boss of one of France's retail trading giants - think Auchan, Decathlon , Leclerc, Champion..etc etc - himself a keen cyclist and eternal fan of Poulidor, thought that the demise of Mercier would be worse for the morale of the French than the invasion of France by Hitler had been. So he bought the name of the company and launched the brand Le Velo de Mercier.
As far as I can recall the launch of the brand was not immediate, but it had been whispered about in trade circles, and I think that the first bikes started emerging in the late-80s/early 90s. The relaunch by the retail tycoon was a pledge of faith in the French cycle industry and was to amount almost to a one-man effort to support the whole of the industry as it was a condition of relaunch that the bikes should be Tout Francais..ie all the components should be French.
Hence Gianni's bike has components from Stronglight and CLB - both St Etienne-based companies, Simplex gears from Dijon...not too far away,probably the hubs are from Perrin and the bars from Belleri, firms also based in the St Etienne area. Just possibly the saddle is a Perache and the pedals Lyotards..both St Etienne, or just outside.
The frame was probaby built by Cycles France Loire, based in Andrezieux-Boutheon, a small industrial town about fifteen or so miles north of St Etienne, that also accommodates St Etienne's official aiport. However the tubing is most likely to be one of the Vitus range from down the valley to the east of St Etienne. Poulidor worked from time to time, ie international shows, for this company.
Unfortunately the tycoon's plans did not work out entirely as he had planned and Cycles France-Loire went bust in 1993. The company was revived and as the rest of the French accessory manufacturers went to the wall, so France-Loire, resorted to buying in frames from Taiwan and kitting them out with whatever equipment, largely Shimano, it could buy in. Fortuately the vast majority of the firm's production was of mountain bikes,so Shimano was fine.
I think that in the mid-90s the bikes were sold either exclusively through the Auchan or the Champion supermarket chain of shops. The top of the range road bike..in a range of about two models, was an single gauge TANGE aero-tubed TIG-welded frame painted in metallic lemon yellow and equipped with the Campagnolo Avanti groupset. At 199 pounds sterling it was a steal.
I bought several..sold them on quickly and then had the mad idea of doing a deal with the factory for the sole rights to the Le Velo de Mercier name for the UK. A visit to the factory was taken up, discussions entered into..and I left later in the day with an invitation to buy a large stock of Vitus 979 Duralinox bikes equipped with out-of-date Campag groupsets. They were of course, the bankrupt stock of the former Cycles France Loire company that had, in it's ill-fated pursuit of racing glory promoted the SEM-France-Loire pro team whose captain de route was none other than Sean Kelly.
But that is another story.
Norris Lockley
Settle , UK