Henri Pigozzi

Who was Henri Pigozzi?

Henri Pigozzi, a car merchant and industrialist, was born as Enrico Teodoro Pigozzi in Turin, Italy.

In 1912 his father disappeared, leaving Pigozzi to take responsibility for his mother, his sister, and a small transport business.

After the war he secured the distribution rights for British and US motorcycles in the Piedmont region, selling surplus machines from the military stocks of the allied armies. Between 1920 and 1922 he worked for a firm that imported coal from the Saarland. In 1924 he set up his own business, importing scrap steel from France which was needed by the Piedmontese steel mills. The principal customer for steel in the region was Fiat and in 1922 Pigozzi was introduced to Giovanni Agnelli, the owner of Fiat. Agnelli was particularly interested in Pigozzi because at the time he was looking for a general commercial representative in France. Pigozzi was already familiar with the French industrial scene, and in 1926, when aged only 28, Pigozzi was appointed as Fiat's General Representative in France.

In the same year, he established a new distributing company named SAFAF in Suresnes for importing and later, for assembling Italian Fiat cars.