Iveco
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IVECO is an acronym for Industrial VEhicle COrporation, an alliance among leading European commercial vehicle manufacturers such as Fiat(including OM (Officine Meccaniche) and Lancia VI), Unic and Magirus. IVECO was established in 1975. It is dominated by Fiat.Iveco was created in 1975 by the merger of five companies operating in Italy, France and Germany: Fiat Veicoli Industriali (located in Turin), OM (Brescia), Lancia Veicoli Speciali (Bolzano), Unic (Trappes) and Magirus (Ulm). Numerous important steps have marked its evolution since then. Today the company leads the medium duty commercial vehicle and engine markets, is in second place for passenger transport and is one of the leaders in the 3.5 tonne light vehicle segment.
In its early years, the company focused on rationalising, integrating and optimising the various manufacturing and commercial structures that had been independent until then, and the first centralised functional structure emerged. From a marketing viewpoint, these years saw the launch of the Daily (1978), the Turbo (1981) and the Turbostar (1984), three vehicles that symbolised Iveco’s entrepreneurial success in Europe.
Once the crisis in the early Nineties had been overcome, a new period of change began, fuelled by increasingly fierce competition. In order to respond more effectively to the growing specialisation of the market, Iveco broke its structure down into specialist corporate units that addressed specific customers divided by product type. In those years, the company continued to boost its strategic presence in the world: in 1992 it bought out the Ital company (Iveco Trucks Australia Limited), which still plays a very important role in the Pacific rim area, and Iveco Mercosul was created in Brazil in 1997, an essential base for manufacturing and distribution operations all over South America. In 1995 the EuroClass luxury coach was voted International Coach of the Year, and in 1999 Iveco and Renault V.I. decided to combine their efforts in the public transport field by merging their respective bus operations. The result was Irisbus, one of the major manufacturers in the passenger transport sector, which was further strengthened by the acquisition of the Hungarian company Ikarusbus. Constantly growing attention was paid in those years to the integration of products and services, both to respond comprehensively to customers’ requirements and to combat the extremely cyclic nature of the automotive market. This strategy led to the creation of Transolver in 1997, which took Iveco into the world of financial services. On the commercial front, in 1998 the EuroCargo, which was sold in over ninety countries and led the market in Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria and Slovenia, was voted the Best Imported Truck in Germany. In 2000 it was the light segment that won awards, when the Daily was voted International Van of the Year, and the one millionth vehicle left the assembly line.