The Fenwick Groupe is a French engineering company, established in 1862, located in Saint-Ouen on the northern outskirts of Paris. Its headquarters are in

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History

Fenwick was founded as an export company in 1862. Most of its trade was with the United States. A meeting in 1878 led to the import of American made hair clippers. These sold well and other imports such as bicycles, typewriters and lifting equipment followed.Histoire de FENWICK
/ref> In 1927, the French

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (Style of the French sovereign, King of the Franks) used on early France, ...

collapsed against the dollar making American goods prohibitively expensive. Consequently, Fenwick obtained a licence to build

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

forklift A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...

trucks in France and so diversified into manufacturing. In 1951 Fenwick obtained a licence to manufacture

Lambretta Lambretta () is the brand name of mainly motor scooters, initially manufactured in Milan, Italy, by Innocenti. The name is derived from the word Lambrate, the suburb of Milan named after the river Lambro which flows through the area, and wher ...

scooters in France. Approximately 200,000 of these were built by 870 employees at factory at

Saint-Julien-les-Villas Saint-Julien-les-Villas is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France. Population See also * Communes of the Aube department The following is a list of the 431 communes of the Aube department of France. The communes cooper ...

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

. Production stopped in 1960 when demand fell. At its peak in 1970, the company employed 1,150 staff at the Saint-Julien-les-Villas plant, which was also used to manufacture forklifts. The plant closed in 1984 with the loss of 515 jobs. The factory's forklift production was taken over by Linde and a new subsidiary called Fenwick-Linde was created.

References

{{Reflist Companies based in Paris-Saclay Truck manufacturers of France Scooter manufacturers French brands