Archive · History
The history
One factory at Lambrate, three product lines. Origins and the four eras first, then each narrative on its own subject; dates and technical data live in Models.
Primary record
Company Chronicle
Every documented year from Ferdinando Innocenti's birth in 1891 to the founding of Innocenti S.A. in Lugano in 2008 — filed as company history, family, scooters and cars.
- 1891
- First entry
- 90
- Documented entries
- 4
- Record categories
- 2008
- Last entry
1891
FamilyFerdinando Innocenti is born
Ferdinando Innocenti is born in Pescia on 1 September 1891. Shortly thereafter his father, Dante Innocenti, a blacksmith, moves to Grosseto, where he opens a hardware store in Via Galilei while continuing to work as a blacksmith.
1906
CompanyA second store, and a place in the family firm
Dante Innocenti opens a second store in Corso Carducci. Having completed his third year at technical school, Ferdinando starts working with his father and his older half-brother Rosolino (from his father's first marriage) at the head of Ferramenta Innocenti, the family hardware firm. The business is doing well and by this stage the family is well off.
1909
CompanyTrading iron at eighteen
At the age of 18 Ferdinando, now head of the family enterprise, starts trading iron, most of it recovered from the drainage of the Maremma marshes. He trades iron for oil, and the sale of oil generates high profits.
1920
CompanyFirst experiments with iron tube
Ferdinando Innocenti starts experimenting with possible applications of iron tubes.
1921
CompanyRome becomes a building site
The Fascist regime embarks on a huge building and remodelling plan, especially in Rome. For the next decade Rome is like one big building site, with a sense of monumental renaissance in the city.
1923
FamilyFerdinando moves to Rome
Ferdinando Innocenti moves to Rome.
1923
CompanyA bank failure
Ferdinando is planning to invest around half a million lire in the expansion of his business in Rome, but the bank in which his money is deposited goes bankrupt a few months later. This proves to be a blessing in disguise: Ferdinando is forced to slow down and has to work to recover the huge sum of money.
1923
CompanySelling Mannesmann tube
Not discouraged by the bank's collapse, Ferdinando soon starts to sell Mannesmann seamless steel tubes made at the Dalmine plant.
1926
CompanyA warehouse in Via Porto Fluviale
Ferdinando opens a tube storage warehouse and plant in Via Porto Fluviale, where he produces products for the building industry in Rome.
1928
CompanyA flourishing economy
The Italian economy is doing well and the building trade is flourishing. Agriculture is also thriving, thanks to the policy of the Fascist regime, which has put an end to trade union activity.
1929
CompanyTwenty employees
The company now employs 20 people.
1930
CompanyFratelli Innocenti
The company changes its name to Fratelli Innocenti.
1931
CompanyThe Castel Gandolfo and Vatican works
Ferdinando starts building an irrigation system in the gardens of the Pope's summer residence at Castel Gandolfo (14 hectares), drawing water from Lake Albano. As soon as this is finished he builds a similar system for the Vatican Gardens, followed by a fire station and a thermoelectric power station. Count Franco Ratti, nephew of Pope Pius XI, and Leone Castelli, who owns a building firm employed by the Vatican, are influential in enabling Ferdinando to take part in these projects.
1931
CompanyScaffolding in the Sistine Chapel
Ferdinando also uses his patented scaffolding on a project in the Sistine Chapel, demonstrating his expertise: the scaffolding is assembled and dismantled in a very short time, without interfering with Michelangelo's priceless frescos. At a time when more than one million people are recorded as out of work, mostly in the industrial sector, the company employs over one hundred workers.
1932
CompanyFrom artisan activity to industrial enterprise
The firm secures several highly prestigious contracts which turn an artisan activity into an industrial enterprise and generate profits that make it possible to expand the company. From 1928 to 1932 industrial production drops by 27%, but Ferdinando decides to branch out to Milan, where the Central Station is being built and the economic crisis is not as severe as elsewhere; Innocenti secures a privileged position and many contracts in the north.
1932
CompanyA second branch, in Milan
Count Ratti, who sits on the Dalmine board and holds important positions elsewhere, and friends in the Vatican, help Ferdinando secure further contracts at the papal palace in Castel Gandolfo. Fratelli Innocenti opens its second branch, at Via S. Paolo 18 in Milan.
1933
CompanyTubular scaffolding at Via Pitteri
Fratelli Innocenti starts producing tubular scaffolding using the rapid assembling and dismantling system developed by the British. A factory is built in Via Pitteri (Milano Lambrate), producing and selling the now tried-and-tested Innocenti scaffolding.
1933
CompanyA new plant on the Lambro
In October a new plant is built on a strip of land between Via Pitteri and the Lambro, and a group of workers relocate from Rome to start production. The IRI (the Italian Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) is set up and Dalmine merges with it; Innocenti, owning a large number of Dalmine shares, becomes one of its most important private shareholders as its influence grows.
1933
CompanyFratelli Innocenti Società Anonima
In November 1933 the company changes its name to Fratelli Innocenti Società Anonima per Applicazioni Tubolari in Acciaio, headquartered in Via XX Settembre, Rome. The company's 5,000 shares, worth 1,000 lire each, are divided between Ferdinando and Rosolino, who hold 3,100 and 1,900 shares respectively.
1933
CompanyA bond loan to raise capital
To raise capital the company takes out a bond loan worth 5,000,000 lire, divided into 5,000 bonds of 1,000 lire each at an annual interest rate of 4%. Ferdinando Innocenti is sole director.
1934
CompanyStands for the World Cup
In preparation for the 1934 World Cup the Italian government asks Innocenti to build new stands to increase the capacity of the Roman stadiums. This work in stands, stages and runways proves extremely profitable for Innocenti's Milan factory, which now employs 200 workers, some of them relocated from Rome. The company now has two head offices and two factories, in Rome and Milan, plus nine branch offices in Genoa, Naples, Bologna, Trieste, Grosseto, Cagliari, Palermo, Padua and Florence.
1934
CompanyFour commercial divisions
The company organises itself into four divisions: Construction (electrical systems, scaffolding, high-voltage pylons, gates, fences and lamp posts); Agriculture and Sports (water pipe systems, irrigation, sports fencing and gymnasium equipment); Industry (thermoelectric power stations, gas and steam pipe systems, cylinders for compressed or liquid gas, and pipes); and Mechanical Industry (tubes for lorries, motorcars and gun carriages, propeller shafts, hydraulic rams and cylinders, and rolls for glassworks). The divisions are purely commercial: all the plants are potentially able to produce the entire range of products.
1935
CompanyThe Sistine Chapel project concludes
The Sistine Chapel project is concluded by the end of 1935, and at the start of the following year Ferdinando is asked to erect a tubular structure covering 6,000 square metres for the Catholic Press World Exhibition.
1935
CompanyWar in Ethiopia
During the summer there is a revolt against the republican government in Spain, and on 3 October Italy invades Ethiopia. Italian industry is not prepared for the outbreak of war, but production is rapidly converted, and within a year the companies producing war equipment are making huge profits. Innocenti chooses to concentrate all its production in the Milan factory.
1935
CompanyCapital doubled
On 30 April 1935 a meeting of the eleven shareholders resolves to double the authorised capital, and the company issues 5,000 new shares worth 1,000 lire each.
1936
CompanyBomb casings and the Lambro diversion
During the war years the Innocenti plants make casings for 150 and 250kg aircraft bombs from cut-down tubes. In 1935 profits amount to 840,000 lire. To avoid heavier taxes under a 1935 change in the law, Innocenti — like many manufacturers — invests in expansion. The course of the River Lambro is diverted to make room for the MO/1 section, and an office building is built in Via Pitteri; only the tube warehouse for the trade is left in Rome. The number of workers doubles to 400 over the following two years.
1936
CompanyHangars, bomb casings and Vatican prestige
The company continues to grow through the constant demand for aircraft hangars and the production of bomb casings from Dalmine tubes, gaining respect through the projects completed for the Vatican.
1936
CompanySAFTA is founded at Apuania
Ferdinando, who has been exploring the use of tubes since 1933, decides to build a factory entirely devoted to tube production. Because Mussolini is keen to build an industrial centre at Apuania, the factory is sited there, enabling Innocenti to obtain funding for the new company, Società Anonima Fabbricazione Tubolari Acciaio (SAFTA). Innocenti holds the majority of the shares, with Dalmine a minority interest.
1936
CompanyA board of directors is formed
In light of the company's rapid growth Ferdinando creates a board of directors and a board of auditors, meeting on 16 April 1936. Rosolino Innocenti, Professor Giulio Giussani, Giuseppe Cecchi and Vittorio Verdarini serve as board members, with Ferdinando as chairman; the board of auditors comprises Renato Finocchi, Carlo Jurgens and Dr Giuliano Mastrogiovanni. The plant is renamed Innocenti Società Anonima per Applicazioni Tubolari in Acciaio.
1936
CompanyThe Pact of Steel
With the proclamation of the Italian empire the war spreads. The Pact of Steel with Germany calls for even greater commitment to the production of bullets, now also made for the artillery and the navy. The company makes a profit of 877,000 lire despite the huge sums invested in expansion.
1937
CompanyA million lire in profit
Profits reach one million lire.
1938
CompanyThe Marina plant
The Marina plant (later MO/2) is built, and the company moves slightly further east of the River Lambro. The equipment plant and the social service buildings (the present SOCI) are also built and, despite massive investment, the company shows a profit of around one and a half million lire. The Milan plant now employs 800 people.
1939
Company17% of Italy's bullet production
Ninety per cent of the workforce is engaged in war production. Innocenti's bullet-making employees account for only 5.5% of the total number of Italians involved in ammunition production, but the factory accounts for 17% of production throughout Italy. Profits amount to 1,119,000 lire.
1940
CompanyGuerra I, II and III
The Ministry of War decides to reorganise its production units, one of which is Guerra I (GI) at Tor Sapienza in Rome, a complex producing around 40,000 bullets a day. Innocenti, Fiat and Falck all compete for the contract; Innocenti is chosen on the strength of a firmer guarantee on the completion deadline, completing the complex between 1939 and 1942 as required, and is then appointed to complete the Guerra II and Guerra III projects in Milan.
1940
CompanyCapital raised to 50 million lire
Profits amount to 4,231,000 lire. On 11 March 1940 the board of directors increases the authorised capital from 20 to 50 million lire. The Milan plant now employs 2,000 people.
1941
CompanyExtruded steel shell cases
Work starts on Guerra II, which will produce German-patented extruded steel shell cases owing to the wartime shortage of copper. The plant, covering 75,000 square metres, is built between Via Tanzi, Via Bistolfi, Via Pitteri and Via Trentacoste, and also produces sintered copper hand-grenade rings on a German patent. The Guerra III complex is built using machinery from Guerra I following the landing of US troops; its construction, two-thirds complete, is interrupted by the events of 8 September 1943. Two of its four huge structures are already equipped with German-supplied pressing machines for extruding shell cases.
1941
CompanyCapital raised to 100 million lire
Profits amount to 10,118,500 lire. The board of directors increases the authorised capital from 50 to 100 million lire, and on 8 April 1941 the company issues 80,000 shares worth 1,000 lire each. The twelve shareholders are reduced to three: Ferdinando Innocenti (80%), Rosolino Innocenti (15%) and Paolo Missiroli (5%). At a meeting on 11 March 1940 Edmondo Balbo (Italo Balbo's brother), the two Innocentis and Missiroli are elected to the board. The Milan plant now employs 3,000 people.
1942
CompanyLambro and ATA
Ferdinando decides it is necessary to split the company into a production division (Lambro) and a trade division (Applicazioni Tubolari Acciaio, ATA).
1942
CompanyThe SAFTA plant opens
The SAFTA plant, built to produce seamless tubes, is completed and starts production. It covers 495,000 square metres, with four longitudinal and three transverse floors and three rolling mills of different sizes. The appointment of 500 new workers brings the total workforce to 6,000. Alberto Calmes, from Luxembourg, who left Germany for political reasons after learning a great deal about tube production, enables the company to produce tubes from ingots rather than from expensive rolled sections that are subsequently welded.
1942
CompanyDestruction, reconstruction and Dalmine's takeover
Production shuts down soon after opening, because as he retreats Kesselring takes some of the industrial equipment to Germany and destroys part of the production units. In November, after a quick reconstruction, the plant starts producing tubes for oil drills and oil and gas pipes. Dalmine acquires all the shares of SAFTA and turns it into a second large production unit. Meanwhile the events of the war keep Innocenti constantly engaged at the plants producing bullets, with plans to turn the Lambrate factory into a huge bullet factory as the main supplier to the Ministry of War. Profits amount to 12,298,000 lire.
1943
Company36,000 bullets a day
Over four years Innocenti triples its production plants and increases production tenfold, producing 36,000 bullets a day in 1943. The number of people working at the Milan plant rises from around 800 in 1938 to 2,000 in 1940, 3,000 in 1941, 6,000 in 1942 and more than 7,000 by spring 1943, by which time the workers are mostly unskilled labourers and 50% of them are women. On 8 September 1943 profits amount to 10,783,000 lire, with 2,200,000 lire in the general reserve and 8,468,000 in the extraordinary reserve.
1943
CompanyFerdinando becomes president amid occupation
At a meeting on 29 April 1943 Ferdinando is appointed president, sole director and general manager of the company. After 8 September the company must withstand German military occupation; despite strong internal opposition, production of war supplies does not stop. Ferdinando works to build constructive, balanced political relations between German, RSI, CLN and democratic forces, and provides the partisans with financial assistance. General Poletti is so enthusiastic about Ferdinando's cooperation that he helps him escape the Allied purge.
1943
CompanyAnticipating the post-war boom
From his vantage point in Rome Ferdinando anticipates a new industrial boom once the war ends, and tries to keep the plants as sound as possible ready for a relaunch. The Allies agree to confine their bombing to unimportant, isolated divisions, so most of the plants are left untouched; the resulting slowdown in production proves an advantage, as the stock of raw materials is later used to cover a large proportion of reconstruction expenses. At the end of the war Ferdinando moves back to Milan, calls a workers' meeting, obtains their cooperation, and reconversion plans are drawn up.
1945
LambrettaA three-point reconversion plan
Reconversion is conceived as a three-point plan: production of a low-cost vehicle for the working classes; the building of metallurgy machinery and industrial plants; and the development of sintering processes.
1945
LambrettaInspiration from the Cushman
The main inspiration for the Lambretta's design dates back to the pre-war Cushman scooters made in Nebraska, USA — large numbers of these olive-green scooters are in Italy, originally ordered by Washington as field transport for paratroopers and marines, used to get around Nazi tactics of destroying roads and bridges in the Dolomites and the Austrian border areas. Innocenti believes a similar vehicle will interest a country whose people need to get around quickly.
1945
LambrettaTorre, Calmes and a workforce of 2,767
Innocenti contacts an engineer at the Experimental Centre in Guidonia, Colonel Pierluigi Torre, who is to become the father of the Lambretta scooter. In metallurgy, Ferdinando wants to exploit Alberto Calmes' expertise in seamless tubing, and in sintered materials he plans to produce bushings and bearings for electric motors and endothermic machinery. The company currently employs 691 skilled workers, specialists and foremen, 969 labourers and unskilled workers, 729 women, 146 delivery boys, watchmen, keepers and drivers, and 232 designers and office staff — a total of 2,767 people: 1,900 at Lambrate, 500 at Guerra III and 367 at Guerra II, with another hundred working outside the premises at ATA and elsewhere.
1945
CompanySurvival on borrowed credit
The workforce is reduced to 970, and about 2,000 workers are made redundant. At the end of 1945 work is scarce: only a hundred people are producing casings for electric motors at Bezzi, an activity that does not even cover expenses. Raw materials are sold off, treasury bonds worth 42,000,000 lire are sold in Rome, and 3,000,000 lire is recovered from the sale of the Dalmine holdings. To survive, the enterprise has to obtain 175,000,000 lire in credit, mainly from Germany.
1946
CompanyFirst reconstruction finance
At the start of 1946 the workforce consists of 800 production staff and 150 office staff. On 12 November the company receives its first financial investment of 300,000,000 lire for reconstruction and production, due to start in 1947. Shortages of coal and electricity cause many delays, and the idea of sintering is abandoned as the technology is now obsolete. The first orders arrive at the end of the year: six special machines for Dalmine (200 tons), tube rolling mills for Yugoslavia (3,200 tons) and 1,150 tons of machinery for Poland.
1947
LambrettaThe first 25 Lambrettas
Shortages of raw materials and energy delay scooter production again, a completely new departure for the company. The first series of 25 Lambretta scooters is eventually completed, and two scooters and one van are produced for the Paris Exhibition. Trade agents are at work in 33 provinces and the company has already received orders for 3,300 scooters, to be supplied by March 1948. The financial situation, still critical, improves in April thanks to a loan of one hundred thousand dollars from Eximbank USA.
1947
LambrettaTen a day, not 150
The company had hoped to produce 150 Lambrettas a day but manages no more than ten, largely due to poor organisation and lack of funds. Signor Calbiani implements a reorganisation raising production to 25–30 a day and shortly after to 50, certainly by the following spring. The plant at Apuania is rebuilt, and Francesco Innocenti steps up tube production thanks to swift financial manoeuvring and the founding of new companies. The Lambrate plant is run by Lauro, a well-connected figure respected for his earlier work at Navalmeccanica, an IRI company.
1947
Lambretta"An adventure that is putting the company at risk"
Lauro complains that scooter production is an adventure risking the company, having used up all the profits of the heavy engineering division. Signor Moro tells the board: "Several mistakes in the way the production of the Lambretta was launched have forced the company to make a huge sacrifice." The project is now 500 million lire over budget.
1947
LambrettaA low-cost tractor for the working classes
Careful new projects, designed to avoid past mistakes in evaluating the market, result in a small, low-cost 'tractor' for the working classes: just 20hp, convertible into a small van under a national patent, and already being built at Hesemberg in Monza.
1948
Lambretta9,660 Model A scooters
By the end of 1948 the company can build 80–85 Model M Lambrettas (Type A) a day but produces only 70, limited by the national market. Exports to the US and Argentina begin in the autumn with a first series of 2,000 scooters. By the end of October 9,660 Type A Lambrettas have been produced, and the model is discontinued.
1949
LambrettaThe Type B corrects the faults of the first model
The Type B, designed for 1949 production, looks much like the first model and shares virtually the same engine, but fixes many of its faults with new front-wheel and rear suspension, a hand gear instead of a foot gear, 8-inch wheels instead of 7-inch, and metallic colours.
1949
LambrettaEighteen months of orders
There are enough orders to cover production costs for the next eighteen months, easing pressure on the heavy engineering division — though one voice notes: "During this period we have eaten up 30% of the division to finance the production of the Lambretta."
1949
CompanyA modern management
The company now has a modern and highly efficient management. President Ferdinando Innocenti is supported by Fioramonti and Fumagalli; Lauro is general manager, Guani is central manager and Moro is administrative manager; the mechanical division is run by Rey, and the engine division by Parolari from June 1949.
1949
CompanyA loss cut by the new model
In February 1949 the profit and loss account shows a loss of more than 800 million lire. Ferdinando is undeterred, because sales of the new model, which has overcome the first model's faults, reduce the loss by 200 million lire in its first three months.
1949
Company150 scooters a day, and a board reshuffle
Production, now well organised, rises from 70 scooters a day in January 1949 to around 150 a day by July, though it remains difficult to keep pace with demand. In March 1949 the company starts making light vehicles with scooter engines, producing four vans a day, and the heavy engineering division wins a large order from Austria. On 30 June 1949 the board of directors comprises Ferdinando Innocenti, Lauro, Luigi Innocenti (Ferdinando's son), Giussani and Pestalozzi.
1950
LambrettaThe 125 C and 125 LC
Two new and improved models, the 125 C and the faired 125 LC, are launched in January 1950, with a target of 60,000 scooters — twice the previous year's total — requiring a new paint-spraying plant and modernised production lines. By May the company produces 5,500 scooters a month; by July, 160 C and 100 LC scooters a day (around 6,200 a month); by 1951 production reaches 7,000 a month.
1950
LambrettaLicences for NSU and France
NSU in Germany is granted a manufacturing licence for the Lambretta in 1950, and a similar agreement is put in place for an initial production of 13,000 scooters in France, with Innocenti holding the majority of the shares in the venture.
1951
LambrettaThe D and LD arrive
In December 1951 the company starts producing two new models, the low-cost D and the more elegant faired LD, exceeding 8,000 Model D scooters in the first month.
1952
Lambretta96,000 vehicles
In 1952 the company produces a total of 96,000 vehicles, 16,000 of which are exported.
1953
LambrettaThe cheaper Model E
Finding it hard to sell this volume at home and facing resistance abroad, the company designs a cheaper Model E in 1953, planning 70,000–80,000 units alongside 40,000–50,000 of the LD, hoping to sustain turnover. Despite an 11% increase over the previous year, demand fails to meet expectations. The company produces 1,063 motor vans in 1952 and 4,780 in 1953; 25% of total production is exported.
1955
CompanyA $350 million Venezuelan order
In 1955 Innocenti receives one of its largest orders ever, the building of a factory in Venezuela — a huge project worth 350 million dollars (by comparison, the Fiat factory in Togliattigrad cost the Russians 920 million dollars). Fiat is also involved, and the two companies join forces.
1955
LambrettaThe Lambrettino 48
Scooter production remains at a respectable level, though below 1953's. At the start of the year the company introduces the high-wheel, two-speed 48cc Lambrettino 48, producing 6,000 during the year and a further 22,000 in 1956; overall production of scooters and motorcycles rises 20% in 1956.
1956
CompanyVenezuela, alone
At the start of 1956 Innocenti begins work on the Venezuelan factory. Fiat soon withdraws from the joint venture, leaving Innocenti to gain 40 billion lire. The works are completed, but after ousting its leader, Jimenez, the Democratic Government judges the cost too high and refuses to pay; the following government, on better terms with the Innocenti family, finally honours the agreement.
1957
CarsTorre is taken off the small-car project
Pierluigi Torre is asked to design a small motor car, but Parolari, Lauro's favourite, takes Torre off the project because he wants to be the only one heading the motor car division.
1958
CarsA utility car abandoned for Gogomobil
Torre designs a prototype utility car that could be built from scratch at the Lambrate plant, but the project is abandoned when Innocenti instead agrees with Gogomobil Iseria to build a small 400cm³ car, partly to avoid upsetting Fiat in the field of heavy mechanics.
1959
CarsBMC and the Austin A40
BMC in Birmingham and Innocenti join forces to build the A40, a 900cm³ Austin saloon. The seven-year agreement covers assembly and the spray painting of BMC-supplied parts, and ultimately proves unfavourable for Innocenti.
1960
CompanyCapital multiplied by Venezuela
Vehicle production indices rise from 100 in 1957 to 103.5 in 1958, 120 in 1959 and 148 in 1960, while capital stock increases by as much as 2,000%, largely thanks to the Venezuela project.
1961
CarsThe A40 line, already obsolete
The A40 production line is completed in just over a year, and by the end of 1960 the company produces around 100 cars a day — though the assembly line is already obsolete beside Fiat's.
1961
CarsPressed parts, the roadster and the Bertone coupé
In 1961 and 1962 a new division starts producing pressed parts for the A40, the roadster and the Bertone coupé, which shares the A40's mechanics. The company produces 20,900 vehicles in total in 1962. In 1963 it also starts producing the regular and Super models of the IM3, and by the end of the year has produced 30,600 vehicles.
1966
FamilyThe death of Ferdinando Innocenti
Ferdinando Innocenti, one of the most brilliant and genial captains of industry in the world, dies at the age of 85. His son Luigi takes over as head of the company.
1967
CompanyA changed climate
The change at the head of the company coincides with a shift in the political, social and financial climate. Political parties are more interested in creating power bases than in maintaining the 'economic miracle' that has given Italy a very high standard of living and international standing; left-wing-dominated governments fail to exploit industry's growing potential.
1967
CompanyUnions and unrest
The Innocenti company has always been involved in politics, and the trade union can mobilise the workforce within hours, calling for better working conditions and real advantages. The waving of the 'equality' flag turns fair demands into class struggle, damaging production and diverting resources from research and investment; strikes recur from week to week and the firm eventually gives in to trade union pressure, which comes to influence company decisions.
1967
CompanyManagers divided over scooters and cars
Ferdinando had always managed to control his various collaborators, but now they gain ascendancy over the company's management. He had seen the scooter as his baby; the strong, capable managers who succeed him have different priorities and fail to develop production as the times demand, leaving it too expensive. At Piaggio the production lines are quickly automated with considerable financial help from Fiat. Loyalists to the Lambretta wistfully suggest continuing to develop the scooter, but lose ground to those who believe motor cars are the only way to relaunch the company — though no company had ever succeeded in switching from motorcycle to motor car production as, say, Triumph, BMW and DKW had envisaged cars from the start.
1967
LambrettaThe Fiat 500 effect
Scooter users start switching to small cars: in 1967 the Fiat 500 is comfortable and reliable in its class and costs just 475,000 lire, against 219,000 lire for the SX 200, with fuel consumption close to a Lambretta's. Overall vehicle production, including scooters, motorcycles and vans, falls from 144,000 a year in 1963 to 107,150 in 1966, 84,885 in 1967, 82,121 in 1968 and 62,209 in 1969. In 1967 Nuccio Bertone is assigned the task of improving the Lambretta's design.
1968
LambrettaModel DL, and the writing on the wall
In January 1968 the company starts producing Model DL in 125, 150 and 200cc; in March it also starts producing a new 50 and 75cc motorcycle, also designed by Bertone, with mechanics derived from the J 50. Despite this last attempt to renew the design, the directors realise in 1968 that it is only a matter of time before scooter production must be discontinued.
1971
FamilyLuigi Innocenti resigns
Plagued by bad health and finding it difficult to cope with the challenging situation, Luigi Innocenti resigns his position as head of the company.
1971
LambrettaThe last Lambretta production
Production of the last model, the DL, is discontinued in April 1971, and the J 50 is discontinued the following year; a reasonable number of the various vans are produced until December. The company produces a total of 11,222 vehicles in 1971: 3,400 DL scooters, 2,153 De Luxe and Special model J 50 motorcycles and 5,669 vans, 72 of which are completed in the first ten days of January 1972.
1972
CompanySold to Leyland
The Innocenti company, a leader in two-wheel vehicles with know-how derived from research that certainly surpasses the technology on the market, is sold to Leyland, and the heavy engineering division is renamed Innse (Innocenti Sant'Eustachio). The company had failed to survive the combination of market conditions, union action, political manoeuvring and a weak leader, clearing the way for slow but relentless Japanese penetration. The plants are emptied and the last model's assembly lines are sold to Scooters India Ltd. in Lucknow, which continues to make DL 150 and 200 Lambrettas for some years, later known there as the Grand Prix with a widely modified design. The die-casts and equipment used for over 25 years are offered to the highest bidder but fail to meet the reserve, and the assembly lines are left to the elements.
1972
CarsBMC engines, Daihatsu, and the Maserati Biturbo
The Lambrate plant continues to make Innocenti-brand motor cars, first with BMC engines (also used in the Mini) and later with Japanese Daihatsu engines. In this last, rather unenlightened, period of management the plant also hosts the Maserati assembly line and produces a large number of the very sound Maserati Biturbo, a 2000cc two- and four-door roadster and coupé, which is not a success, largely due to faulty advertising rather than the qualities of the car.
1972
CarsThe end of Lambrate, and the Innocenti brand in Brazil
Production moves to Modena and all activity ceases on the Innocenti premises. Some workers are employed by Maserati, others by public institutions, and some are encouraged to resign or take early retirement. The Innocenti brand and agents are taken over by Fiat and used to identify some of its motor cars, mainly those produced in Brazil.
1979
CompanyLambretta S.A. is founded in Lugano
Lambretta S.A. is set up in Lugano, Switzerland, 70 kilometres from the birthplace of the original company in Milan.
1983
CompanySwiss trademark rights
Lambretta S.A. acquires the trademark rights for Lambretta in Switzerland.
1994
CompanyThe oldest international rights
Lambretta S.A. acquires the international trademark rights for Lambretta — the oldest international Lambretta rights worldwide.
1995
CompanyLambretta.com
The domain name Lambretta.com is registered — the oldest Lambretta domain name in the world.
2006
CompanyProtection against counterfeiters
More international trademarks are acquired to protect the name from counterfeiters that have entered the market.
2008
CompanyInnocenti S.A.
Innocenti S.A. is set up in Lugano to commemorate the Innocenti family and its connection to the Lambretta brand, with Lambretta S.A. incorporated within the new legal entity.
2008
LambrettaThe Pato and the Cigno
The Pato (the Duck), a higher-quality scooter made in China, is launched on the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French markets under the slogan "Love Life, Love Lambretta," with Italian celebrity Valeria Marini as its face, to recreate awareness of the brand. The Innocenti team also develops the Cigno (the Swan), a beautiful hybrid scooter able to compete with the quality of its rival, the Vespa, receiving a hugely enthusiastic response worldwide; the company aims to launch the Cigno internationally in 2009 or 2010.