Francisco Batista Russo & Irmão

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Sociedade Comercial e Industrial de Automóveis Francisco Batista Russo & Irmão, SARL
legal form Sociedade de responsabilidade limitada
founding 1926
resolution 1995
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Lisbon , Portugal
Branch Automobile trade , automobile manufacturing

The Sociedade Comercial e Industrial de Automóveis Francisco Baptista Russo & Irmão, SARL was an automobile dealer and manufacturer of Lisbon , Portugal .

Other sources give the company name as Francisco Baptista Russo & Irmão, SARL - Sociedade Comercial e Industrial de Automóveis or with the spelling Baptista instead of Batista .

history

The company was founded in 1926 as Francisco Baptista Russo e Irmão and initially imported Avon brand tires to Portugal.

In 1963 the company, which also had offices in Porto , Leiria and Faro , moved to its new headquarters in Lisbon, designed by Joaquim Ferreira. At the end of the same year, an assembly plant was opened in Vendas Novas . Passenger cars and commercial vehicles were assembled there. In the 1960s the company Univex was founded, which sold the brands Fiat, Steyr and Fuso.

At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, investments were made in training courses and machines. The company was dissolved in 1995. The assembly plant in Vendas Novas changed hands and, as VN Automóveis, manufactured Isuzu commercial vehicles from 2006 to 2014 , before going bankrupt in 2015.

The company's striking building with its multi-storey, rounded facade has been used by a Decathlon branch since 2018 . The Túnel do Baptista Russo , which is located in front of the former headquarters, is still named after the company .

Import and production

The import of MAN trucks began in 1954, and from 1957 the import of Dürkopp Diana scooters . In 1956 the company became an importer of the BMW brand . The Isetta was sold , as were the 503 and 507 models . The 700 was added later .

The plant in Vendas Novas produced commercial vehicles of the brands MAN, Saviem , Steyr and Atkinson .

Francisco Baptista Russo & Irmão was the first importer of Toyota vehicles to Portugal, but passed this business on to Caetano .

Between 1968 and 1981 around 15,000 units of the BMW 1600 , 1602 , 2002 (to 1976), 1502 (from 1976) and the E21 and E12 series were produced. For the new class , a total of 12,768 assembled kits are specified by 1977. In the E12 series, the BMW 520 was produced with a manual transmission. Due to the political circumstances ( Carnation Revolution ) only 696 CKD kits of this model were assembled in 1973 and 1974.

From 1976 the Fiat 127 was also produced. Other brands and vehicles mentioned are Mini Moke , Mitsubishi , Portaro and UMM .

In 1977 at least BMW production ceased. BMW discussed the establishment of a subsidiary with a majority stake by Francisco Batista Russo & Irmão, but rejected this plan again. A station wagon version of the 1502 was also developed in Portugal, which would have been less taxed. A production of this model has not been proven.

In 1984 production stopped.

During 1993 the UMM Alter II was manufactured.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Sociedade Comercial e Industrial de Automóveis Francisco Batista Russo & Irmão, SARL . In: Diário da República n.º 276/1976, Série III de . November 25, 1976, p. 11567–11570 ( dre.pt [accessed October 7, 2018]).
  2. ↑ a b c Afonso Magalhães: História. O negócio muda, o nome da rotunda permanece. In: ionline.sapo.pt. June 27, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 (Portuguese).
  3. ^ Francisco Batista Russo & Irmão, SARL - Sociedade Comercial e Industrial de Automóveis. In: arquivo.presidencia.pt. March 14, 2083, accessed October 5, 2018 (Portuguese).
  4. ^ A b Ana Carolina Soares de Carvalho: Estudo da sustentabilidade da indústria automóvel em Portugal . Aveiro 2009 ( handle.net [accessed October 3, 2018]).
  5. ^ A b Luís Palma Féria: A História do Sector Automóvel em Portugal (1895–1995). In: www.gee.gov.pt. 1999, accessed January 20, 2014 (Portuguese).
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g Restos de Colecção: Francisco Batista Russo & Irmão. In: restosdecoleccao.blogspot.com. November 9, 2017, accessed October 5, 2018 .
  7. ^ A b c d Maria Luísa de Castro Coelho de Oliveira e Sousa: Uma perspectiva instituvional do desenvolvimento: O caso da indústria automóvel em Portugal (1960–1990) . Lisbon November 2005 ( handle.net [accessed October 8, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Marta Carvalho: Lisboa: Decathlon ocupa antigas instalações da "Batista Russo". In: hallcity.pt. April 10, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 (Portuguese).
  9. ^ A b Annika Biss: The internationalization of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG: From pure export business to the establishment of our own subsidiaries abroad 1945–1981 , Berlin 2017.
  10. ^ Ulrich Thieme: Portugal. In: e12.de. Retrieved October 13, 2018 .