With the Indian Government looking at selling its stake in Scooters India, the Lambretta brand might finally be revived!
Younger readers of this website, most of whom have grown up on a steady diet of Indo-Japanese scooters and motorcycles, are unlikely to remember the Vijay Super scooter, or indeed the Lambretta which the Super was based on. But some older readers, especially those with fond memories of their first ride on a motor scooter, may well remember the Vijay Super, which was manufactured by Scooters India Limited (SIL) from 1972 to 1997.
But before we got on with the story, a brief bit of history – starting in the late-1940s, the Lambretta range of scooters was first manufactured in Milan, Italy, by Innocenti. In 1972, the Indian Government purchased the rights to the Lambretta name and all tooling and equipment from Innocenti’s factory in Milan. With this, Scooters India Limited (SIL) was set up by the Government, and a manufacturing facility was established in Lucknow. While another company – the Automobile Products of India (API) – had already been assembling Innocenti-built Lambretta scooters in India since the 1950s, SIL started making Lambretta-based scooters in Lucknow, selling them under the names of Vijay Delux and Vijay Super.
SIL was doing well until the early-1980s, at which time it was selling about 35,000 scooters per annum. But with the onslaught of Indo-Japanese scooters and motorcycles that came in the late-1980s, the going got increasingly tough for SIL and the company finally stopped producing scooters in 1997.
The above, you might think, is where the story ends for SIL. However, after all these years, the Indian Government is now looking at the possibility of reviving SIL, which claims it still owns the worldwide rights to the Lambretta name. The Government is looking at selling its 95% stake in SIL to a suitable private entity that can bring in the money and the requisite manpower for new product development.
SIL, which still makes a few three-wheelers and employs more than 1,200 people, is currently a ‘sick unit,’ with an ancient plant and outdated machinery. However, if it does indeed own the rights to the Lambretta name (and that seems to be disputed, with the Italy-based Lambretta Consortium claiming that it owns the worldwide rights to the Lambretta name), SIL could be sitting on a potential goldmine.
On its website, the Lambretta Consortium makes no mention of SIL whatsoever. ‘Lambretta Consortium is considered as the sole legitimate successor of the former Italian company Innocenti that ceased its activity during the 70s of the last century,’ is all they say, giving out no details of when, and from whom, they bought the rights to the Lambretta name. Hence, the Lambretta Consortium comes across as a rather dubious setup – a company that’s currently not making any scooters and one whose primary interest seems to lie in promoting Lambretta as a fashion label for things like clothing, footwear, watches, helmets, bags, eyewear and perfume etc.
There is no dearth of enthusiasts who love the iconic Lambretta brand and modern, contemporary scooters sold under the name may have huge potential to do very well indeed. If the Indian Government can finally get over its indecisiveness and identify a suitable corporate entity – one with financial muscle and marketing savvy – that will invest in SIL and bring the company out of the doldrums, this is one revival that will be celebrated by scooter enthusiasts all over the world.
