Brescia 20/11/2009 : Intervista ad Andrea Gervasi, Presidente di

Berliet was a French manufacturer regarding automobiles, buses, trucks and military autos among other vehicles operating out of Vénissieux, outside of Lyon, France. Founded in 1899, and apart from any five-year period from 1944 to 1949 when it turned out put into 'administration sequestre' it turned out in private ownership until 1967 when it then became part of Citroën, and subsequently acquired through Renault in 1974 as well as merged with Saviem in to a new Renault Trucks organization in 1978. The Berliet marque was eliminated by 1980.Marius Berliet started the experiments with automobiles inside 1894. Some single-cylinder cars were being followed in 1900 by way of a twin-cylinder model. In 1902, Berliet took over your plant of Audibert & Lavirotte within Lyon. Berliet started to construct four-cylinder automobiles featured by way of a honeycomb radiator and metallic chassis frame was used rather than wood. The next year, a model was launched that had been similar to contemporary Mercedes. In 1906, Berliet sold the license for manufacturing his model on the American Locomotive Company.

Just before World War I, Berliet offered a variety of models from 8 CV to 60 CV. The main models had four-cylinder engines (2412 cc and 4398 cc, respectively), and there was a six-cylinder type of 9500 cc. A 1539 cc product (12 CV) was produced between 1910 and also 1912. From 1912, six-cylinder models were made upon individual orders solely.The First World War concluded in a massive increase popular. Berliet, like Renault and Latil, produced trucks for the French army. The military orders placed major demands about the factory's capacity, necessitating major investment inside production plant and manufacturing plant space.In 1915 a four hundred hectare site was ordered between Vénissieux et Saint-Priest as a way to build a new key factory.The Berliet CBA grew to be the iconic truck within the Voie Sacrée, supplying the battle front at Verdun during 1916. 25, 000 of these 4/5 heap Berliet trucks, originally launched in 1914, were ordered by the French army. During 1916 40 ones were leaving the plant each day. Under license from Renault, Berliet were also providing shells and battle tanks presently. The number of employees employed increased to 3, 150.By 1917 the value of annual turnover acquired multiplied fourfold since the beginning of the war, and a new legal structure was deemed ideal. The company became this Société anonyme des Autos Marius Berliet.Following your war the manufacturer reoriented portion of its production back in order to passenger cars, but Berliet nevertheless discovered themselves with excess potential, as the army was no longer buying all the trucks the factory could make, and overall output halved.Marius Berliet responded on the outbreak of peace by deciding to generate just a single type of truck and a single form of car, which represented a journeying from his pre-war market place strategy. The single truck on what Berliet focused was the particular 5 ton CBA that had served the media so well during your war.

The passenger car to become produced, exhibited on the Berliet stand for the 15th Paris Motor Indicate in October 1919, was the 3296cc (15HP/CV) "Torpedo" bodied "Berliet Form VB" of modern appearance. Marius Berliet was not merely one to miss a tip: rather than devote period and engineering talent to developing a new car for the new decade, he obtained and cloned an American Dodge. The Dodge was famously robust, and the Berliet backup was well received with March 1919 when it had its first open outing, locally, at the Lyon Trade Fair. The headlights were mounted unusually high and the simple disc wheels ended up large, giving the car a nice "no nonsense" look. Particularly attractive was the expense of just 11, 800 francs in October 1919. Unfortunately, however, the Berliet engineers failed to make certain the steel used inside car's construction was in the same quality as the North american steel used for the Dodge, and this resulted in series problems for the early customers of the actual "Berliet Type VB" and serious reputational problems for the company.

The factory were being set up to produce the "Berliet Type VB" in the rate of 100 cars per day which would have been recently an ambitious target below any circumstances. The rapid drop-off widely used for what at this point was the manufacturer's merely passenger car model that followed the quality issues plunged the company into financial difficulties, with losses of fifty five million francs recorded a single year. Survival was in question, and Berliet was slipped into judicial administration in 1921. Marius Berliet himself had held 88% in the share capital, but was unable in order to all the company's creditors plus the firm therefore fell in the hands of the finance institutions. Berliet was nevertheless in a position to retain operational control. During the ensuring ten years, supported by a sustained recovery sought after that in turn reflected a highly effective model strategy after 1922, Berliet was able to his debtors and, in 1929, to regain financial control on the business from the finance institutions.

may be governed by copyright. – Send suggestions We Comply All TakeDown by Request.

thanks for coming