Italian company Pininfarina has been forced to hand over control of its business to banks after being overcome by crippling debt. Sadly, red ink to the tune of almost €600M (AU$1.1 billion) will do that.
Pininfarina was established by Battista “Pinin” Farina in 1930 after he returned to Turin following a short stint under the tutelage of Henry Ford. The company is famous for designing some of the world’s most beautiful cars. Sure, the one-off Ferrari P4/5 pictured above may not be one of them, but it achieved a certain notoriety and was a perfect showcase of the businesses strengths.
Along with Ferrari, Pinifarina also penned designs for the likes of Alfa Romeo, Cadillac, Ford, Jaguar, Maserati, MG, Peugeot, Volvo, Lancia and more.
In addition to designing cars, Pininfarina also built cars under contract to leading manufacturers, including Ford (StreetKa, Focus cabriolet) and Alfa Romeo (Spider). It was this aspect of the business that floundered as sales fell sharply in the spiralling global financial crisis.
2008 was something of an annus horribilis for Pininfarina which also suffered the shock death of then CEO Andrea Pininfarina in traffic accident last August.
Source: TimesOnline and autoblog
One reply on “Pininfarina – When too much red is enough”
… and let’s not forget to mention the “stunning” Farina cars designed for BMC in the 1950s, like the Austin A40!!! Otherwise Pininfarina has done some great work, especially for the Italian makes. It’ll be a crying shame if they fold.