Antoine Gilles Florent Menier (October 13, 1904 – August 12, 1967) was a French businessman and municipal politician who was a member of the prominent

Menier family The Menier family of Noisiel, France, was a prominent family of chocolatiers who began as pharmaceutical manufacturers in Paris in 1816. They would build a highly successful enterprise, expanding to London, and New York City. The Menier Chocolate ...

chocolatier A chocolatier is a person or company who makes confectionery from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other ingredients. Education and training Traditionally, chocolatiers, e ...

s. Born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, Antoine Menier was the eldest of the four sons of Georges Menier (1880–1933) and Simone Camille Marie Legrand (1881–1972). He studied at the

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...

in Paris but had little interest in business and did not go on to advanced studies. Instead, he used his wealth to pursue a life of sporting activities. An

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

enthusiast, Antoine Menier set a number of records driving

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...

vehicles in

hillclimbing Hillclimbing, also known as hill climbing, speed hillclimbing, or speed hill climbing, is a branch of motorsport in which drivers compete against the clock to complete an uphill course. It is one of the oldest forms of motorsport, since the fir ...

events. In 1933 Antoine Menier became the mayor of

Lognes Lognes () is a community in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France from the center of Paris. The community of Lognes is part of the Val Maubuée sector, one of the four sectors ...

, a town about south of the family's factories in

Noisiel Noisiel () is a commune in the French department of Seine-et-Marne, administrative region of Île-de-France. It is located in the eastern suburbs of Paris, from the center of Paris. The commune of Noisiel is part of the Val Maubuée sector, one ...

. He held the mayoral position until 1945 when his uncle Jacques Menier died. Since 1871, Menier family members had been the mayor of the town of Noisiel and Antoine replaced his uncle Jacques as Noisiel's mayor. He held that office until 1959 but was the last Menier to be the town's mayor.

Château de Chenonceau

As a result of his grandfather Gaston Menier's will, in 1935 Antoine Menier inherited

Château de Chenonceau The Château de Chenonceau () is a French château spanning the river Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux, Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire. It is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire Valley. The estate of Chenonceau is firs ...

in France's Loire Valley. On Antoine's death his estate became the subject of a

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

battle and ultimately the château was acquired by his widowed sister-in-law, Odette. On her death in 1975, her son Jean-Louis Menier inherited it and made Chenonceau one of France's major tourist attractions.

Decline of the Menier chocolate empire

On his father's death in 1933, Gaston Menier became the co-managing head of the

Menier Chocolate The Menier Chocolate company (french: Chocolat Menier) is a French chocolate manufacturing business founded in 1816 as a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Paris, at a time when chocolate was used as a medicinal product and was only one part of the ov ...

company with his brother

Hubert Hubert is a Germanic masculine given name, from ''hug'' "mind" and ''beraht'' "bright". It also occurs as a surname. Saint Hubertus or Hubert (c. 656 – 30 May 727) is the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and metalworkers. ...

. In spite of the difficult times of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, in 1950 Menier Chocolate was still the industry leader in France. However, Antoine Menier was ill-equipped to run the company and his brother Hubert lacked the leadership skills to overcome the growing number of problems in what had become an intensely competitive market. On Hubert's death in 1959 there was no Menier family member capable or desirous of replacing him. Married late in life to Parisian fashion model Renée Vigne, Antoine Menier had no children and was the last of the Menier family to head the company. By 1960 the once mighty Menier Chocolate company was losing substantial amounts of money and merged with the Rozan chocolate company of

Oloron-Sainte-Marie Oloron-Sainte-Marie (; oc, Auloron e Senta Maria; eu, Oloroe-Donamaria) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2015: Aquitaine), southwestern France. History The town was founded by the ...

. A shell of its former self, the Menier workforce in Noisiel was soon reduced from a peak of more than 2,000 to just a few hundred. By 1965 the Menier family no longer held an interest in the company. Antoine Menier died in Paris in 1967.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menier, Antoine Gilles 20th-century French businesspeople French racing drivers 1904 births 1967 deaths Antoine Gilles Lycée Condorcet alumni