FIAT IN THE UK
Fiat has been represented in Britain since the turn of the 20th century. In 1903, just four years after the Company was founded in Turin, Italy, Fiat Motors Ltd was established and by 1908 some 200 Fiat cars had been sold to London's taxi drivers. The first London bus with pneumatic tyres to be licensed under the new Scotland Yard regulations was a Fiat, and in the 1920s Harrods was using some 40 Fiat delivery vans.
Today Fiat is represented in the UK by the majority of the Company's activities, which in 2011 have been organised into two distinct groups: Fiat SpA with a clear focus in the automobile sector reinforcing the parent company's role in the management of a multi-brand group; and Fiat Industrial SpA which includes trucks, commercial vehicles, agriculture and construction equipment and related powertrain activities.
Car manufacturing remains at the heart of Fiat's activities, represented in Britain and Ireland by Fiat Group Automobiles UK and its six brands: Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Fiat Professional, Abarth, Jeep and Chrysler - the latter two acquired in 2010 as a result of a strategic alliance with Chrysler Group.
Fiat's prestige automotive brands are represented through Ferrari North Europe Ltd and Maserati GB Ltd. The former is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ferrari SpA with responsibility for sales and aftersales of Ferrari in UK, Scandinavia and Russia; while Maserati boasts a proud history of constructing luxury and sporting cars that stretches back more than sixty years.
Fiat Industrial SpA has a significant market and industrial UK presence in the agricultural and tractors sector with CNH - which includes an agricultural tractor manufacturing plant in Basildon, Essex - as well as the commercial vehicle sector with Iveco - a leading player in the UK commercial vehicle market with products ranging from 3.5 tonnes van through to a range of 44 tonne tractor units, buses (Irisbus), and industrial production equipment (COMAU).
Fiat UK Limited, based in Central London, manages corporate communications, institutional and corporate relations, legal support and co-ordinates Fiat activities in Britain on behalf of Fiat SpA and Fiat Industrial SpA.
