The story
François Pilain (1859–1924) had a long career as an engineer-entrepreneur in and around the auto-business, working at different times with Gardner-Serpollet and La Buire. Between 1893 and 1897 he ran his own company, Société François Pilain, after which he worked for Établissements V. Vermorel.
In 1901 François Pilain established his own business, as an automobile manufacturer, in Lyon. The cars were sold under the Pilain name, During 1906/1907 motor car chassis were being produced at the rate of approximately one per day. However, in 1908 SAP was placed in liquidation. It was permitted to continue in the auto-making business, but Pilain himself was obliged to resign, to be replaced by a new managing director called de Villeneuve.
During the First World War the manufacturer assembled trucks for Hotchkiss. Afterwards, in 1920, it was taken over by a locally based recently created company called the Société Lyonnaise de l’Industrie Mécanique et Autos Pilain (“SLIM”). Between 1920 and 1929 the factory produced cars using the “SLIM” badge.
From Wikipedia’s article on Société des Automobiles Pilain, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4