A leading company until the 1970s (with the launch of synthetic fibres for knitwear in 1968 and 1975), it then struggled, like many others, to achieve the competitiveness required by the globalization of textile production.
In 1996 the fifth generation of Cavrois divested the business, which was taken over by two managers who maintained it for four years. The textile activity stopped definitively in 2000.
The site has been entirely transformed by the "SEM ville renouvelée" into a "business hotel", bringing together various activities: construction, cardboard, communication, etc. Unlike many other industrial buildings in the city, the Cavrois-Mahieu factory has, during its rehabilitation, kept almost all its buildings. This physical integrity makes it possible to understand the appearance and the working process of a 19th century textile factory: energy core (boiler room + chimneys + engine room), textile production workshops under sheds, maintenance workshops, storage stores, offices.
On the three hectares occupied by the factory, the Non-Lieu has a part of 900 m2, saved from demolition by the association: this area had to be demolished to become a car park. It includes: the boiler room, maintenance workshops (mechanical, electrical and plumbing), storage stores.
The association's challenge is to preserve, as much as possible, the traces of previous activity and to introduce a new use, essentially cultural and artistic.
"ALL THESE PEOPLE FROM THE NORTH, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER THEM."
(Daniel Lemahieu)