Word: citro
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Today M. André Citroën no longer has francs to fling. For some years now the flashy little maker of Citroën cars, with a lack of originality he once would have scorned, has been leasing the new features pioneered by Walter P. Chrysler. Chrysler "floating power" became in France "le moteur flottant" of Citroën. It helped, but not enough. This year, slipping perilously near to bankruptcy, M. Citroën struck out with a new car of his own which has made Paris sit up and stare. It has front wheel drive, "knee action...
...Ford of France was by no means out, but no longer would he run his two billion-franc company with the absolutism which, along with mass production methods, he borrowed from his idol, the Ford of Dearborn. Andre Citroën has what Henry Ford mortally hates & fears -bankers...
...Citroën's bankers used to be the famed house of Lazard Freres. Early in Depression, which to France came late. Lazard Freres tried to curb its client's exuberance, urged him to retrench. M. Citroën's reply was to buy up what little stock he needed for absolute control, preparatory to riding out Depression in solitary splendor. Lazard made haste to dispose of its minority interest...
...Sharply Citroën's annual output of 120.000 automobiles in 1929 dropped to 58,000 in (the fiscal year) 1932. First hint of trouble came that year when the French Government threatened legal action to force M. Citroën to hand over the social insurance premiums he had collected from his 25,000 employes. Last spring a 10% wage cut brought ugly rioting at the Citroën plant in Paris, a lock-out and in the end a several-weeks' shutdown. A completely redesigned Citroën for 1934 entailed heavy retooling expenses and Jean...
Henceforth André Citroën will confine his automotive genius to production, leaving policies to his financial betters. Meantime an army of auditors swarmed over the Citroën ledgers. In Le Soir a realistic financial observer remarked: "It is impossible now to get any exact idea of the company's condition. ... In prosperous days, accounts meant little because increased demand and prices covered everything...