The famous Mercier bicycle brand, which has notably equipped Raymond Poulidor and Joop Zoetemelk, has announced its decision to open a "manufacturing and production unit in Revin", near Charleville-Mézières, in the last quarter of 2021. A choice that enthused those involved in the local economy, interviewed by Europe 1.

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"Mercier, if that speaks to me? Absolutely", smiles Daniel Durbecq.

The mayor of Revin, near Charleville-Mézières, is one of the first concerned by the decision of the bicycle brand, made famous, in particular, by Raymond Poulidor or Joop Zoetemelk: more than 100 years after their creation, the French cycles , which now produce electric bicycles, will relocate a bicycle production site in the small town of the Ardennes.

Bikes hitherto made in South-East Asia, and which could give a real breath of fresh air to a region severely hit by deindustrialisation and unemployment.

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"It's double digit growth"

In the Ardennes, we can already see the bet as a winner.

"People prefer to have French, with a hundred-year-old brand," says Daniel Durbecq, who strongly believes in the "Made in France" argument, "very important", according to him.

The electric bicycle, "it is a double-digit growth", agrees Bernard Dekens, president of the community of communes.

"We are really in productions which are interesting, it is the future". 

Officials who hope, in hollow, that the success of the project stimulates the local economic fabric.

In Revin, the plant will be set up on an industrial wasteland of 60,000 square meters and 270 jobs are promised, in a territory which has 27% of unemployed.

"It can actually snowball. You have plenty of small businesses today that could work for a group like the Mercier Group in Revin," says Daniel Durbecq. 

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Enthusiasm is shared among the population, like Smaïn, 27 years old and unemployed, met by Europe 1. "It balances everyone's heart, with the companies that have closed and everything. Frankly, I would like to apply. It would be a good opportunity, "he projects himself.