Giovanni Ceirano

Giovanni Ceirano was an Italian industrialist and automotive pioneer, born in Cuneo in 1865 and died in 1948, one of the Ceirano brothers who helped found the Italian motor industry. The son of a watchmaker, he founded the car maker Ceirano Junior and Company in 1904, renamed Junior Fabbrica Automobili Torinese in 1905. In 1906 he co-founded the Societa Ceirano Automobili Torino, known as SCAT, and was its managing director until 1918. With his son Giovanni Ernesto he founded the Fabbrica Automobili Ceirano in 1919, and in 1923 it was merged into SCAT to form SCAT-Ceirano. When the company ran into economic difficulty in 1929 Fiat acquired a controlling interest, and Ceirano left in 1931. In 1934 he acquired the car company Fabbrica Anonima Torinese Automobili with his son, and after the war it was reoriented to making auto parts.