Piaggio Scooters
Piaggio Scooters are manufactured by Piaggio & C. SpA. The company is based in Pontedera, Italy, but employs more than 6,700 people in dozens of countries. It was founded in 1884 by Rinaldo Piaggio. Piaggio is currently run by CEO and Chairman Roberto Colaninno.
There are currently seven different brands of motorbikes and scooters that are produced by the Piaggio Company. They are: Piaggio, Aprilla, Gilera, Vespa, Derbi, Ligier, and Moto Guzzi.
When Rinaldo Piaggio first created the Piaggio Company, he intended to manufacture trains and railway carriages. But when World War One errupted, the company began to build aircraft. Later, in World War Two, the Piaggio Company manufactured bombers. The damaging effects of the Second World War left both the Piaggio Company’s main factory and Italy’s infrastructure in ruins. Rinaldo’s son, Enrico, decided that the company should focus on producing affordable consumer vehicles. The result was the Vespa scooter which was released in 1946.
The Vespa scooter was extremely successful in Italy and the thriving Piaggio Company soon began to expand and produce new vehicle designs. In 1959, the Agnellis, who also own Fiat, bought Piaggio. Under the governance of the Agnelli family, the motorcycle and aircraft divisions of the Piaggio Company were divided into two separate companies. Piaggio suffered financial hardships during the 1990’s. Competition from much larger motorcycle manufacturers caused the company’s success outside of Europe to dwindle. Piaggio is now developing hybrid motorcycles in order to better serve the current market.