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Berliet had been a French manufacturer involving automobiles, buses, trucks and military cars among other vehicles located in Vénissieux, outside of Lyon, France. Founded in 1899, and apart from a new five-year period from 1944 to 1949 when it turned out put into 'administration sequestre' it absolutely was in private ownership until 1967 when it then became part of Citroën, and subsequently acquired by simply Renault in 1974 and merged with Saviem into a new Renault Trucks business in 1978. The Berliet marque was eliminated by 1980.Marius Berliet started his experiments with automobiles with 1894. Some single-cylinder cars have been followed in 1900 by the twin-cylinder model. In 1902, Berliet took over the plant of Audibert & Lavirotte with Lyon. Berliet started to construct four-cylinder automobiles featured by a honeycomb radiator and metallic chassis frame was used rather than wood. The next year, a model was launched which was similar to contemporary Mercedes. In 1906, Berliet sold the licence for manufacturing his model towards the American Locomotive Company.

Prior to World War I, Berliet offered a range of models from 8 CV to 60 CV. The main models had four-cylinder engines (2412 closed circuit and 4398 cc, respectively), and there was a six-cylinder model of 9500 cc. A 1539 cc type (12 CV) seemed to be produced between 1910 in addition to 1912. From 1912, six-cylinder models were built upon individual orders solely.The First World War led to a massive increase in demand. Berliet, like Renault and Latil, produced trucks for the actual French army. The military orders placed major demands around the factory's capacity, necessitating major investment within production plant and factory space.In 1915 a 500 hectare site was bought between Vénissieux et Saint-Priest so that you can build a new major factory.The Berliet CBA started to be the iconic truck about the Voie Sacrée, supplying the battle the front at Verdun during 1916. 25, 000 of these 4/5 heap Berliet trucks, originally launched in 1914, were ordered by the actual French army. During 1916 40 of which were leaving the plant daily. Under license from Renault, Berliet were also creating shells and battle tanks presently. The number of workers employed increased to 3, 150.By 1917 the benefit of annual turnover had multiplied fourfold since the beginning of the war, and a new legal structure was deemed correct. The company became the particular Société anonyme des Vehicles Marius Berliet.After the war the manufacturer reoriented section of its production back to passenger cars, but Berliet nevertheless found themselves with excess capability, as the army was no more buying all the vans the factory could produce, and overall output halved.Marius Berliet responded towards the outbreak of peace by deciding to produce just a single kind of truck and a single sort of car, which represented a journeying from his pre-war industry strategy. The single truck which Berliet focused was the particular 5 ton CBA that had served the nation so well during the actual war.

The passenger car for being produced, exhibited on the Berliet stand at the 15th Paris Motor Show in October 1919, was the 3296cc (15HP/CV) "Torpedo" bodied "Berliet Kind VB" of modern visual appeal. Marius Berliet was it's unlikely that any to miss a tip: rather than devote occasion and engineering talent to making a new car for the new decade, he obtained and ripped an American Dodge. The Dodge was once robust, and the Berliet copy was well received throughout March 1919 when this had its first community outing, locally, at the Lyon Business Fair. The headlights were mounted unusually high and also the simple disc wheels have been large, giving the car a pleasing "no nonsense" look. Particularly attractive was the cost of just 11, 800 francs in July 1919. Unfortunately, however, the Berliet engineers failed in order that the steel used inside the car's construction was with the same quality as the Us steel used for this Dodge, and this resulted in series problems to the early customers of the particular "Berliet Type VB" and serious reputational destruction of the company.

Venice Simplon OrientExpress

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

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