Fondation Berliet, Lyon F

Berliet was a French manufacturer connected with automobiles, buses, trucks and military cars 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 it turned out put into 'administration sequestre' it turned out in private ownership until 1967 when after that it became part of Citroën, and subsequently acquired simply by Renault in 1974 and merged with Saviem in a new Renault Trucks corporation in 1978. The Berliet marque was eliminated by 1980.Marius Berliet started the experiments with automobiles with 1894. Some single-cylinder cars were followed in 1900 by way of twin-cylinder model. In 1902, Berliet took over the actual plant of Audibert & Lavirotte with Lyon. Berliet started to develop four-cylinder automobiles featured by the honeycomb radiator and steel chassis frame was used rather then wood. The next year, a model was launched that has been similar to contemporary Mercedes. In 1906, Berliet sold the licence for manufacturing his model on the American Locomotive Company.

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Ahead of World War I, Berliet offered a selection of models from 8 CONTINUE to 60 CV. The main models experienced four-cylinder engines (2412 cc and 4398 cc, respectively), and there was a six-cylinder style of 9500 cc. A 1539 cc design (12 CV) seemed to be produced between 1910 and also 1912. From 1912, six-cylinder models were made upon individual orders only.The First World War resulted in a massive increase successful. Berliet, like Renault and Latil, produced trucks for the particular French army. The military orders placed major demands about the factory's capacity, necessitating major investment in production plant and factory space.In 1915 a 400 hectare site was obtained between Vénissieux et Saint-Priest in order to build a new major factory.The Berliet CBA became the iconic truck on the Voie Sacrée, supplying the battle entry at Verdun during 1916. 25, 000 of these 4/5 ton Berliet trucks, originally launched in 1914, were ordered by the actual French army. During 1916 40 advisors were leaving the plant on a daily basis. Under license from Renault, Berliet were also producing shells and battle tanks at the moment. The number of workers employed increased to 3, 150.By 1917 the value of annual turnover had multiplied fourfold since the start of the war, and a new legal structure was deemed appropriate. The company became this Société anonyme des Automobiles Marius Berliet.As soon as the war the manufacturer reoriented portion of its production back in order to passenger cars, but Berliet nevertheless found themselves with excess capacity, as the army was no longer buying all the vans the factory could generate, and overall output halved.Marius Berliet responded towards outbreak of peace by deciding to make just a single sort of truck and a single kind of car, which represented a departure from his pre-war market strategy. The single truck what is the best Berliet focused was the particular 5 ton CBA that had served the country so well during the war.

Fondation Berliet, Lyon F

The passenger car to be produced, exhibited on the Berliet stand at the 15th Paris Motor Demonstrate in October 1919, was the 3296cc (15HP/CV) "Torpedo" bodied "Berliet Sort VB" of modern overall look. Marius Berliet was it's unlikely that any to miss a trick: rather than devote time and engineering talent to having a new car for the new decade, he obtained and ripped an American Dodge. The Dodge was once robust, and the Berliet duplicate was well received within March 1919 when the idea had its first open public outing, locally, at the Lyon Industry Fair. The headlights were mounted unusually high plus the simple disc wheels were being large, giving the car a pleasing "no nonsense" look. Particularly attractive was the buying price of just 11, 800 francs in October 1919. Unfortunately, however, the Berliet engineers failed to ensure the steel used in the car's construction was from the same quality as the United states steel used for this Dodge, and this resulted in series problems for that early customers of the "Berliet Type VB" and serious reputational injury to the company.

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The factory ended up set up to produce the "Berliet Type VB" for the rate of 100 cars daily which would have already been an ambitious target under any circumstances. The rapid drop-off in demand for what at this time was the manufacturer's just passenger car model that followed the high quality issues plunged the small business into financial difficulties, with losses of fifty five million francs recorded in a single year. Survival was in doubt, and Berliet was slipped 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 in to the hands of the banks. Berliet was nevertheless competent to retain operational control. During the ensuring ten years, supported by a sustained recovery popular that in turn reflected a powerful model strategy after 1922, Berliet was able to his debtors and, in 1929, to regain financial control in the business from the finance institutions.

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