Lilli Bertone Gives Birth to Bertone Cento

Following what turned out to be a very entangled story for the famous Italian design house, Lilli Bertone, widow of the late Nuccio Bertone, announced she has managed to purchase the Bertone trademark, patents and historical files of Stile Bertone from a bankruptcy court.

In addition, the 74-year old set up the new Bertone, called Bertone Cento. The new company will be a service company focused on design and engineering for automotive, rail and product design (read cars and trains), Autonews reported.

“I am fully satisfied with this agreement,” Lilli Bertone said in a release. “It represents a fundamental starting point on the basis of which our work to kick start all our activities, from styling to production, can begin."

"I have fought long and hard for this result, and I have had to steer my way round a veritable obstacle course in the form of people pursuing interests that have nothing to do with the company’s industrial mission, completely ignoring the interests of the workforce, stirring up controversy for instrumental purposes, and exploiting the incomprehensible willingness of certain newspapers to publish falsehoods."

Bertone Cento employs 200 people and has a contract capacity of 300,000 working hours per year in both areas of design and engineering services. Although the price for the birth of the new company has not been revealed, the Italian media speculates the amount paid is situated anywhere in between 1.5 and 3 million euros.