Country: France

The Peugeot story is one of the founding myths of French industrial history. In the late 18th century the Peugeot family were wealthy land owners in the town of Montbeliard, close to the German and Swiss borders with France. They had a notable interest in the agricultural machinery of the time such as wind and water mills, and in spinning and weaving, which were becoming mechanised.

In 1810 Jean-Pierre and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot, formed a company, Peugeot Fils, and founded an iron foundry. They started with basic objects such as saw blades and household utensils, moved on to simple machines such as pepper mills and coffee grinders and then graduated to precision engineering and sewing machines.

In 1885 Armand Peugeot opened a bicycle factory on the famous Beaulieu site. This was the birth of the Cycles Peugeot business. From here it was but a short step to motorcars and motorbikes. There follows a complex intertwining of different brothers, sometimes running different competing companies, sometimes merging the Peugeot group back together again.

However, throughout its whole, somewhat chaotic, history the Peugeot group has maintained what marketeers would call remarkably consistent positioning. Peugeot products have always had a certain engineering quality without ever quite becoming luxury or exotic items. More...