Fondation Berliet 2011 Page 2

Berliet has been a French manufacturer regarding automobiles, buses, trucks and military motor vehicles among other vehicles based in Vénissieux, outside of Lyon, France. Founded in 1899, and apart from a five-year period from 1944 to 1949 when ıt had been put into 'administration sequestre' it was in private ownership until 1967 when it then became part of Citroën, and subsequently acquired by simply Renault in 1974 in addition to merged with Saviem right into a new Renault Trucks organization in 1978. The Berliet marque was phased out by 1980.Marius Berliet started his / her experiments with automobiles in 1894. Some single-cylinder cars ended up followed in 1900 with a twin-cylinder model. In 1902, Berliet took over this plant of Audibert & Lavirotte inside Lyon. Berliet started to create four-cylinder automobiles featured with a honeycomb radiator and aluminum chassis frame was used rather then wood. The next year, a model was launched that's similar to contemporary Mercedes. In 1906, Berliet sold the driving licence for manufacturing his model towards the American Locomotive Company.

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Before World War I, Berliet offered a selection of models from 8 RESUME to 60 CV. The main models acquired four-cylinder engines (2412 closed circuit and 4398 cc, respectively), and there was a six-cylinder style of 9500 cc. A 1539 cc product (12 CV) seemed to be produced between 1910 and also 1912. From 1912, six-cylinder models were built upon individual orders solely.The First World War generated 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 with production plant and manufacturing plant space.In 1915 a four hundred hectare site was acquired between Vénissieux et Saint-Priest so that you can build a new principal factory.The Berliet CBA became the iconic truck within the Voie Sacrée, supplying the battle entry at Verdun during 1916. 25, 000 of these 4/5 lot Berliet trucks, originally launched in 1914, were ordered by your French army. During 1916 40 of these were leaving the plant daily. Under license from Renault, Berliet were also providing shells and battle tanks right now. The number of staff employed increased to 3, 150.By 1917 the worth of annual turnover got multiplied fourfold since the start of the war, and a new lawful structure was deemed appropriate. The company became the actual Société anonyme des Vehicles Marius Berliet.Following your war the manufacturer reoriented a part of its production back to be able to passenger cars, but Berliet nevertheless identified themselves with excess volume, as the army was not buying all the vehicles the factory could make, and overall output halved.Marius Berliet responded towards outbreak of peace by deciding to produce just a single type of truck and a single kind of car, which represented a departure from his pre-war current market strategy. The single truck on what Berliet focused was your 5 ton CBA that had served the country so well during this war.

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The passenger car to become produced, exhibited on the Berliet stand with the 15th Paris Motor Present in October 1919, was the 3296cc (15HP/CV) "Torpedo" bodied "Berliet Variety VB" of modern look. Marius Berliet was probably none to miss a tip: rather than devote occasion and engineering talent to having a new car for the brand new decade, he obtained and duplicated an American Dodge. The Dodge was notoriously robust, and the Berliet backup was well received throughout March 1919 when that had its first open outing, locally, at the Lyon Business Fair. The headlights were mounted unusually high plus the simple disc wheels were being large, giving the car a nice "no nonsense" look. Particularly attractive was the price of just 11, 800 francs in October 1919. Unfortunately, however, the Berliet engineers failed to make sure that the steel used inside the car's construction was from the same quality as the Us steel used for the particular Dodge, and this resulted in series problems with the early customers of the particular "Berliet Type VB" and serious reputational destruction of the company.

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The factory had been set up to generate the "Berliet Type VB" at the rate of 100 cars each day which would have also been an ambitious target under any circumstances. The rapid drop-off widely used for what at this time was the manufacturer's merely passenger car model that followed the coffee quality issues plunged the small business into financial difficulties, with losses of 55 million francs recorded in a single year. Survival was in question, and Berliet was put into judicial administration in 1921. Marius Berliet himself had held 88% on the share capital, but was unable in order to all the company's creditors and the firm therefore fell into your hands of the banks. Berliet was nevertheless capable to retain operational control. During the ensuring few years, supported by a sustained recovery popular that in turn reflected a good model strategy after 1922, Berliet was able in order to his debtors and, in 1929, to regain financial control over the business from the financial institutions.

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