* Gallic grouping
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Mergers and rumours of mergers drift across the European commercial vehicle scene, some of them almost provoking international incidents. But one consortium which has been quietly successful and has carved a very solid and respected place for itself is SAVIEM—its name a combination of capital letters of the type beloved by the French. In fact the Societe Anonyme de Vehicules Industriels et d'Equipements Me caniques is now very much an integrated company and an international force to be reckoned with, as colleague Tony Wilding and I confirmed on a recent trip to the main factory at Blainville, on the outskirts of Caen, in Normandy.
SAVIEM was created in 1955 by merging the old French makes of Latil and Somua with the very much larger commercial division of Renault. Since then it has bought the SAC d'Annonay plant near Lyons (1956) and the Chausson p.s.v. company (1958), which together now form the largest bus and coach production centre in France—at Annonay, near Lyons. Engines are built at Limoges (and also come from MAN in Germany and Alfa Romeo in Italy with whom SAVIEM has manufacturing and marketing arrangements).
Blainville is on the River Orne in the green countryside of Calvados—which gives its name to the potent local apple brandy; in the autumn the whole area is alive with lorryloads of bright green and red apples on their way to the presses for cider and Calvados production.