Brand pillars
Innocenti is the factory. It built Lambretta scooters, Lambro three-wheelers and Innocenti cars. Innocenti S.A. of Lugano is today the global owner of all three marks.
How it fits together
One family founded one company, and that company built three product lines. The word "Innocenti" is used in three different senses — keeping them apart makes the whole story readable.
Family → Company → Products
Scooters
Built by Innocenti, Milan
Three-wheel commercial vehicles
Built by Innocenti, Milan
Cars
Built by Innocenti, Milan
The family
Innocenti is first of all a surname. Ferdinando Innocenti, born in Pescia in 1891, founded the business; his son Luigi ran it after him, and the family line continued to hold the name long after Italian production ended.
The company
Innocenti is the company and the factory at Lambrate in Milan: a steel-tube and scaffolding works that became a mass producer. It is the manufacturer behind all three product lines — it is not itself only a scooter brand.
The car marque
From 1961 the factory also sold cars under its own name — Austin-derived saloons, the Innocenti Mini, and later the Bertone-styled Mini 90/120 — so "an Innocenti" can mean a car as well as a company.
The family, the factory, the car · Since 1920s
A family name, a company and a car marque. Founded by Ferdinando Innocenti and owned by the Innocenti family, the Lambrate works in Milan built Lambretta scooters, Lambro three-wheelers and, from 1961, cars badged Innocenti.
The scooter · Since 1947
Named after the Lambro river beside the factory. An open tubular frame that showed its engine, sold to the working classes and then to the world — and taken record hunting on the Rome–Ostia road and at Montlhéry.
The three-wheeler · Since 1949
The commercial arm of the family. From the 125 FB of 1949 to the 600 V of 1971, the Lambro carried Italian trade — and its descendants still work the streets of the world as tuk-tuks.
Ownership & lineage
The factory was owned by the Innocenti family for two generations. When the works passed to outside industrial owners the products ended, but the names did not: they were gathered in Lugano and finally re-united with the family line by assignment in 2010.
1920s — 1966
Ferdinando Innocenti
Ferdinando Innocenti built the business himself: a steel-tube and scaffolding works in Rome, then from 1933 the plant at Lambrate in Milan. The company was private, family-held and named after him, and it was his decision after the war to convert the bombed works to mass mobility rather than return only to tubing.
1966 — 1972
Luigi Innocenti
On Ferdinando's death in 1966 his son Luigi took over the group. The scooter market was shrinking as cheap cars arrived, and the family looked for an industrial partner for the car division while Lambretta and Lambro production continued at Lambrate.
1972 — 1993
British Leyland → De Tomaso → Fiat
The Lambrate works passed to British Leyland, then to De Tomaso, then to Fiat, and car production under the Innocenti badge ran until the plant finally closed in 1993. Scooter and three-wheeler production had already ended in 1971, with the complete tooling sold to Scooters India Ltd in Lucknow.
1979 — 2006
Lambretta S.A., Lugano
Lambretta S.A. was established in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1979 to hold and defend the name. From 1994 to 2006 the company progressively acquired and strengthened international trademark rights market by market, keeping the marks alive while the Italian factory wound down.
2008 — 2010
Innocenti S.A.
Innocenti S.A. was founded in Lugano in 2008 and Lambretta S.A. was incorporated into it; the first modern scooter, the Pato, followed. In 2010 Liliana Querci Innocenti, representing the family line of the original founders, formally assigned the combined Italian "Lambretta / Innocenti" trademark to the Swiss company — closing the circle between family and marks.
Today
Innocenti S.A., Lugano
Innocenti S.A. is the global owner of the trademarks Innocenti, Lambretta and Lambro, and continues the legacy with new products under all three brand pillars.