Ferdinando Innocenti

Ferdinando Innocenti was an Italian businessman, born in Pescia, Tuscany, on 1 September 1891 and died in Varese on 21 June 1966. The son of a blacksmith who owned two hardware stores, he grew up in Grosseto and worked in the family business from his teens. In 1923 he moved to Rome with his brother to sell metal pipes and scaffolding kits, and his firm later built a factory at Lambrate in Milan to make a patented tubular scaffolding system. He founded the machinery-works company Innocenti, which won large wartime contracts from the Ministry of War, and after the war he launched production of the low-cost Lambretta motor scooter in 1947. By 1966 his Milan plant was assembling BMC cars, primarily versions of the Mini and the Austin and Morris 1100, which made up three percent of the Italian passenger car market. Although he was an important player in the Italian car industry, he never held a driving licence. His son Luigi succeeded him as head of the company on his death.