An article I found on Verney-Carron:
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2018/07/09/france-adopts-new-precission-rifle/
With a contract to replace the French Army’s bolt-action FR-F2 sniper rifle expected in the near future,
Verney-Carron, one of France’s premier sporting gun makers is positioning itself to win the contract.
Verney-Carron was established in 1820 and has a successful line of sporting guns and security equipment including the Flash Ball, a rubber ball launcher, and they were also a subcontractor for the FAMAS before production ended. The company’s military division, Verney-Carron Défense, was launched in 2017. They currently offer two weapons: a 5.56×45 mm assault rifle, the VCD-15 and the 7.62×51mm VCD-10, a semi-automatic precision rifle. It is the VCD-10 that Verney-Carron Défense hopes will win the upcoming precision rifle tender. The FR-F2 entered service in 1986, alongside the FAMAS, based on the MAS-36, the FR-F2 is due for replacement. The company displayed the VCD-15 and VCD-10 for the first time at the 2018 Eurosatory defence and security fair.
The French Army adopted Heckler & Koch’s HK-416 to replace the FAMAS in 2016, this was a contract that Verney-Carron were blocked from bidding for due to them not making 80 million euros ($93 million) turnover a year. This paved the way for the
adoption of the HK-416F.
Verney-Carron’s chief executive, Guillaume Verney-Carron, feels his company is ideally placed to meet the future precision rifle tender. He told
BFM Business TV channel that his company was ready, “This is to provide about 2,500 units over three or four years, and that we know how to do.” He
told l’Essor that “over the past two years we have invested more than one million euros to complete our production tool in machining centers and to develop a precision rifle and an assault rifle inspired by the AR10 and the AR15.”
Guillaume Verney-Carron explained that he sees Heckler & Koch as the primary rival for the FR-F2 replacement contract, saying: “since the closure of the MAS (Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne), there are no more French companies on this range of products, we come back to show that the French industry can compete with large foreign companies.”