Henri Théodore Pigozzi (born Enrico Teodoro Pigozzi; 26 June 1898, in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

– 18 November 1964, in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

) was a car merchant and industrialist who is best known for having founded Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie Automobile (

Simca Simca (; Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company) was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bough ...

). In 1912 his father disappeared, leaving Pigozzi, then aged 14, to take responsibility for his mother, his sister, and a small transport business. In 1918, after the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, he secured the distribution rights for British and US motorcycles in the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

region, selling surplus machines from the military stocks of the allied armies. Between 1920 and 1922 he worked for a firm that imported coal from the

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

. In 1924 he set up his own business, importing scrap steel from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

which was needed by the Piedmontese steel mills. The principal customer for steel in the region was Fiat and in 1922 Pigozzi was introduced to

Giovanni Agnelli Giovanni Agnelli (13 August 1866 – 16 December 1945) was an Italian businessman, who founded Fiat car manufacturing in 1899. Early life The son of Edoardo Agnelli and Aniceta Frisetti, he was born in 1866 in Villar Perosa, a small town near ...

, the owner of

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

. Agnelli was particularly interested in Pigozzi because at the time he was looking for a general commercial representative in France. Pigozzi was already familiar with the French industrial scene, and in 1926, when aged only 28, Pigozzi was appointed as Fiat's General Representative in France. In the same year, he established a new distributing company named SAFAF (Société Anonyme Français des Automobiles FIAT) in

Suresnes Suresnes () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. Located in Hauts-de-Seine, from the centre of Paris, it had a population of 49,145 as of 2016. The nearest communes are Nanterre, Puteaux, Rueil-Malmaison, Saint-Cloud an ...

(near

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) for importing and later, for assembling Italian Fiat cars. From 1928 to 1934, about 30,000 FIATs were assembled and sold by him in his capacity as Director General of SAFAF. Pigozzi bought the premises at

Nanterre Nanterre (, ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807. The eastern part of Nanterre, bordering t ...

of the defunct Donnet-Zédel car manufacturing company, and on 2 November 1934 he established there the Société Industrielle de Mécanique et de Carrosserie Automobile, known as

. He ran Simca for nearly three decades, as Director General between 1935 and 1954 and as President-Director General between 1954 and 1963, which was when

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

, a minority share holder since buying 15% from Ford in 1958, increased their share-holding in the business to 64% and took control. On 31 May 1963, with Chrysler in control, he was obliged to resign from the presidency of Simca. According to his son Jean (see below), all three of Henri's children were borne by his mistress but raised by his wife, Loisette, as her own. (Cite profile by Ingrid Sischy, "Living Large Is The Best Revenge", Vanity Fair, December 2010) He died suddenly, aged 66 from a heart-attack at

, a suburb of Paris, on 18 November 1964, eighteen months later.

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20041012014947/http://www.histomobile.com/histomob/presmark.asp?ID=26&lan=2

Sources

* Jean-Paul Rousseau und Jaques Rousseau: ''Simca Histoire d’une marque'', Fontainebleau 1996 1898 births 1964 deaths Italian emigrants to France Italian automotive pioneers French founders of automobile manufacturers Italian founders of automobile manufacturers {{italy-business-bio-stub

See also

External links

Sources