Fondation Berliet 2011 Page 3

Berliet had been a French manufacturer connected with automobiles, buses, trucks and military cars among other vehicles located in Vénissieux, outside of Lyon, France. Founded in 1899, and apart from some sort of five-year period from 1944 to 1949 when it turned out put into 'administration sequestre' it absolutely was in private ownership until 1967 when after that it became part of Citroën, and subsequently acquired simply by Renault in 1974 and also merged with Saviem right into a new Renault Trucks corporation in 1978. The Berliet marque was eliminated by 1980.Marius Berliet started his experiments with automobiles inside 1894. Some single-cylinder cars ended up followed in 1900 with a twin-cylinder model. In 1902, Berliet took over the actual plant of Audibert & Lavirotte inside Lyon. Berliet started to develop four-cylinder automobiles featured with a honeycomb radiator and metallic chassis frame was used as an alternative to wood. The next year, a model was launched that has been similar to contemporary Mercedes. In 1906, Berliet sold the permit for manufacturing his model towards American Locomotive Company.

01 Le MONTELIER MUSEE de la Fondation BERLIET

Ahead of World War I, Berliet offered a choice of models from 8 CONTINUE to 60 CV. The main models received four-cylinder engines (2412 cc and 4398 cc, respectively), and there was a six-cylinder style of 9500 cc. A 1539 cc model (12 CV) had been produced between 1910 along with 1912. From 1912, six-cylinder models were created upon individual orders simply.The First World War generated a massive increase successful. Berliet, like Renault and Latil, produced trucks for the actual French army. The military orders placed major demands within the factory's capacity, necessitating major investment in production plant and factory space.In 1915 a four hundred hectare site was ordered between Vénissieux et Saint-Priest in order to build a new principal factory.The Berliet CBA evolved into the iconic truck on the Voie Sacrée, supplying the battle top at Verdun during 1916. 25, 000 of these 4/5 ton Berliet trucks, originally launched in 1914, were ordered by this French army. During 1916 40 of them were leaving the plant each day. Under license from Renault, Berliet were also creating shells and battle tanks right now. The number of workers employed increased to 3, 150.By 1917 the price of annual turnover experienced multiplied fourfold since the beginning of the war, and a new legal structure was deemed proper. The company became your Société anonyme des Vehicles Marius Berliet.Following war the manufacturer reoriented part of its production back to be able to passenger cars, but Berliet nevertheless identified themselves with excess ability, as the army was no more buying all the pickup trucks the factory could make, and overall output halved.Marius Berliet responded to the outbreak of peace by deciding to generate just a single sort of truck and a single kind of car, which represented a starting from his pre-war market strategy. The single truck which Berliet focused was this 5 ton CBA that had served the country so well during the war.

01 Le MONTELIER MUSEE de la Fondation BERLIET

The passenger car to become produced, exhibited on the Berliet stand for the 15th Paris Motor Present in October 1919, was the 3296cc (15HP/CV) "Torpedo" bodied "Berliet Kind VB" of modern visual appeal. Marius Berliet was not just one to miss a strategy: rather than devote period and engineering talent to creating a new car for the newest decade, he obtained and copied an American Dodge. The Dodge was notoriously robust, and the Berliet copy was well received with March 1919 when this had its first community outing, locally, at the Lyon Buy and sell Fair. The headlights were mounted unusually high and the simple disc wheels were being large, giving the car a pleasing "no nonsense" look. Particularly attractive was the cost of just 11, 800 francs in March 1919. Unfortunately, however, the Berliet engineers failed to ensure the steel used in the car's construction was of the same quality as the American steel used for the Dodge, and this resulted in series problems with the early customers of your "Berliet Type VB" and serious reputational destruction of the company.

01 Le MONTELIER MUSEE de la Fondation BERLIET Page 2

01 Le MONTELIER MUSEE de la Fondation BERLIET Page 2

The factory were being set up to produce the "Berliet Type VB" for the rate of 100 cars every day which would have been recently an ambitious target beneath any circumstances. The rapid drop-off sought after for what at this time was the manufacturer's merely passenger car model that followed the high quality issues plunged the enterprise into financial difficulties, with losses of second there’s 55 million francs recorded in one year. Survival was in question, and Berliet was placed in 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 and the firm therefore fell in the hands of the banking institutions. Berliet was nevertheless capable of retain operational control. During the ensuring few years, supported by a sustained recovery popular that in turn reflected a powerful model strategy after 1922, Berliet was able to settle his debtors and, in 1929, to regain financial control in the business from the banks.

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