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Innocenti

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The Innocenti Company came into being during the 1920s in Rome, founded by Ferdinando Innocenti. In the early days production concentrated on iron tubes and scaffolding. The turning point came with the new factory in Milano-Lambrate in 1933. In November of that year the name of the company was changed to "S.A. F.lli Innocenti" and the production range was extended to war materials. Innocenti became one of the most important companies producing war materials during the 30s and 40s. The Pact of Steel with Germany required greater commitment to producing bullets, which were now also made for the Army and Navy. In 1939 the Innocenti factory was praised by Benito Mussolini during his October 27th 1939 visit as "a model of the fascist establishment". The mechanical output of the factory amounted to 17% of Italy's total. Workers in the Milan plant numbered 800 in 1938, increasing to 2,000 in 1940, 3,000 in 1941, 6,000 in 1942 and over 7,000 in the spring of 1943, mostly unskilled labour, 50% of whom were women.
At the end of the war Ferdinando Innocenti called a workers' meeting in Milan and succeeded in getting their cooperation.
The reconversion plans were conceived in three stages:
1. Producing a low-cost vehicle for the working class.
2. Building metallurgic machinery and industrial plant.
3. Developing sintering processes.
The vehicle was to be the Lambretta. The idea came from vehicles dropped in Rome by British parachuters. Innocenti thought that similar vehicles could be of great interest in a country where people needed a means of transport to move quickly. Output increased from 2,000 per month in January 1949 to 7,000 in December 1951. In 1952 a total of 96,000 vehicles were produced, 16,000 of which were exported. From 1958 to 1963 Italy underwent a great industrial boom. In 1961 there was a 97% increase in production compared with 1953. Ferdinando Innocenti decided that the moment to start producing cars had arrived. It was not to be a successful decision.
In 1971 the Innocenti Company, leader in the field of two-wheel vehicles and with vast know-how derived from research (which undoubtedly surpassed the technology then on the market), was sold to Leyland and the heavy mechanics division became INN.SE. (Innocenti Sant'Eustachio). Plants were emptied and the assembly lines for the last model were sold to India (Scooterindia) where the Lambretta models DL 150 and 200 were to be made for many more years. The Innocenti brand and agents were taken over by Fiat and the enormous historic factory in Milan was finally closed in 1993.

Lambretta historical advertising

1967 - Mini Minor assembly line

1974 - Mini Bertone assembly line