THE HISTORY OF BERLIET

Marius BERLIET was born in 1866 in Lyon, in the industrial district of the Croix-Rousse. His father’s family is from north Dauphiné, where numerous generations of the family worked as labourers. His grandfather left the countryside at the beginning of the 19th century and found a job as a tulle worker in Lyon. His father created a modest textile workshop for hat linings His mother, Lucie Fabre was from the south of France.

The Berliets and Fabres were members of the Petite Eglise, a catholic faction which did not accept the terms of the 1801 Concordat. He was the oldest of seven children.

With his school certificate in his pocket in 1881, aged 15, Marius BERLIET joined his father’s workshop as an apprentice weaver. He followed evening classes in mechanics and English at the Société d’Enseignement Professionnel du Rhône. He was 24 when he started doing artificial leather and textile embossing at the same time as working for his father, and invented a machine to roll up ribbon.

Now well-versed in mechanics, he built his first engine in 1894 and his first car in 1895. In 1899, he bought a 90m2 workshop in Lyon at 56, Rue Sully, and then rented a workshop of 450m2 in 1900 at 1, Rue Michel Perret. In 1902, he acquired the Audibert and Lavirotte factories (5,000m2), the beginnings of the BERLIET factory in Monplaisir.

In 1905, the sale of the licence for 3 cars of 22, 40 and 60 HP to ALCO (The American Locomotive Company), provided him with the necessary resources to make a start on his industrial career. The buffalo-guard locomotive manufactured by ALCO became the emblem of the BERLIET make. His apprentice school was created in 1909. Exports represented 50% of his sales in 1912. In that year, a German team at the wheel of a BERLIET-series car won the Monaco rally. In 1913, 3,500 cars came out of the Monplaisir factory, which now occupied 48,000m2.

In 1914, he was manufacturing 6,000 mortar bombs per day, then trucks (40 CBAs per day in 1916) and RENAULT tanks (1,050 were manufactured in 1918).

In 1915, Marius BERLIET bought 400 hectares of land in Vénissieux-Saint Priest, and within two years, the factory was up and running: an integrated plant producing everything for the vehicles from steel to the delivery of vehicles.

In spite of bankruptcy in 1921, the company – a limited company since 1917 – recovered and opted for diesel engines in 1930, launching its first Saharan missions (1926 to 1932) and directing its focus on truck manufacturing exclusively. During the Second World War, the manufacture of “gazobois” combined gas generation and wood engines for the fleet of the south zone was possible until the end of 1942: after that time, BERLIET was used by the occupying forces as the manufacturer of the north zone. In spite of the political risks, the company was returned to its owners in 1949, the year Marius BERLIET died.

From 17 trucks per day in 1950, the company was producing over 120 trucks per day by 1974.

The export effort in Europe, and the development of industrialisation policy in developing countries to cater for their specific needs from 1958 onwards saw the following landmarks amongst others:

• creation of Berliet Algeria in 1956 and inauguration of the first assembly line in 1957;
• creation of Berliet Morocco in 1958;
• technology transfer to China for the manufacture of 4 types of heavy goods vehicles in 1965;
• turnkey contract with a bus factory in Cuba in 1969;

• industrialisation contract for a range of 7 vehicles and construction of an industrial complex in a turnkey operation in Algeria in 1970 (over 200 hectares with 10,000 employees);

• industrialisation contract for the PR 100 bus in Poland and construction of a factory producing 25 units per day in 1972, plus a very broad training policy.

The same period saw a regional devolution policy and the creation of several factories within a range of 60 km of Lyon:

• in Bourg en Bresse (01): assembly in 1964;
• in Saint-Priest (69) and Andrézieux-Bouthéon (42) for axles and gearboxes respectively in 1970;
• in Chambéry (73): fire-fighting equipment; and Arbresle (69): minor engineering in 1971:

with, at the same time, a policy rationalising methods and resources throughout the company’s divisions.

Two strategic decisions were taken in the 1960s: creation of the design and research centre in 1962, which served as a tool to control products, the capital-intensive agreement with the MICHELIN group in 1967 resulting in a transfer of the manufacture of CITROEN trucks to AUTOMOBILES M BERLIET.

In 1975, AUTOMOBILES M BERLIET employed 24,000 people. The state decided to attach BERLIET to RENAULT. In 1978, BERLIET became RENAULT VI after absorption of SAVIEM. In 1980, the BERLIET and SAVIEN makes disappeared to be replaced by RENAULT.