Word: piaggio
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...turned out miles of pipe and thousands of joints for scaffolds, pontoon bridges, temporary grandstands. In World War II he switched from pipe to artillery shell production. At war's end he decided to turn his pipe into the framework of a motor scooter like the just-launched Piaggio & Co.'s Vespa (TIME, June 16, 1952). Last year Innocenti Corp. grossed $43 million from scooters, 6,000 of them exported to the U.S., earned another $19 million from pipes and machine-tools...
...Challenge. Some months ago, the Embassy awarded a $7,528,000 contract to the Piaggio yards in Palermo for a NATO destroyer escort. Later, when a new plantwide election was held, the Reds argued that "the bosses think the workers are such imbeciles that they can be blackmailed. They don't know that the workers have sufficient intelligence to understand that orders must be assigned to plants and yards which have necessary equipment and qualified personnel ... in spite of American millionaires." Result: the Reds increased the number of Communist shop stewards at Piaggio from four to seven...
...money to expand, Piaggio borrowed $1,080,000 from the Export-Import Bank and ECA. Piaggio organized Vespa clubs, races and contests, thinks that "the best way to fight Communism in this country is to give each worker a scooter, so he will have his own transportation, have something valuable of his own, and have a stake in the principle of private property." Taking their cue from this, many industrialists have bought Vespas on a reduced-price fleet plan, sold them to employees by paycheck deductions. In Piaggio's own plant, 60% of the 3,500 workers who once...
...countries, either through exports or local manufacturers licensed to make them. (The newest plant, in Spain, went into production this year.) Plenty of competitors have also sprung up in Italy. In fact, the cheaper Lambrettas made by the Innocenti Co. now outstrip the Vespa in sales. But this week Piaggio cut the Vespa's price in Italy to $240, enough to undersell the comparable Lambretta model. (Piaggio also is making railroad cars under license from Budd Co., aircraft engines, propellers, light planes...
...whether the U.S. will take to Vespas, no one knows. But Piaggio sees a big market as a substitute for a "second car," college student's runabout, low-cost rival of the motorcycle, or as an exciting new toy for hot-rodders...