At last year's 77th Geneva International Motor Show Bertone presented this interesting and well thought out Fiat Panda based concept sportscar, dubbed the Barchetta, built to celebrate the firm's 95th anniversary.

For the first time in more than half a century, Bertone will not be attending the Geneva Motor Show this year. This painful decision was taken this morning by Lilli Bertone, Chairman of the Board of Stile Bertone SpA, who has written to the General Secretary of the Geneva Show, notifying him of the decision.

"Company management is being thoroughly restructured”, said Lilli Bertone, “and as a result of this we are not in a position to meet the obligations of an event that is so much in the public eye."

The decision not to go to the Geneva Show falls in with the Chairman’s request to keep a low profile in matters of corporate communication, a request that also takes account of the changed atmosphere in the media in recent weeks.

"Up to today," said Lilli Bertone, "I have been the subject of specious, instrumental attacks on the part of certain newspapers and some sections of the Unions, attacks that would seem to have been orchestrated on purpose by interests foreign to those of the company, and perhaps only apparently identifiable with the minority shareholders, with the explicit intention of discrediting me and my industrial actions.

“Someone actually had the effrontery to say that in the present circumstances, it is I who am the weak link in the way of the industrial future of the company. Now I am saying that I have had enough! The time has come for everyone to accept responsibility for what they are saying and, above all, for what they are doing. I have always worked for the good of the company, sustaining onerous recapitalisation operations out of my own pocket. But the rest of the family has proved not to be up to the situation, as Nuccio Bertone feared.

“Carrozzeria Bertone went through two world wars and nearly a hundred years of history without problems but has been devastated in just three years by ruinously amateurish management that has wiped out its turnover. In just two years, Stile Bertone has lost more than 70 per cent of its turnover in spite of the huge cash resources made available for its operations. A disastrous result that has no justification and for which, last week, I fired the general manager.

"I too have made mistakes," admitted Lilli Bertone, "when I followed the advice of the managers within the family who said I should not bother myself with operating and financial questions. But I’m still in time to remedy matters. The government commissioners have made their appearance at the Carrozzeria and I am sure they will find the most suitable solutions for the industrial future of the company. In Stile Bertone, of which I directly own 75% of the shares, we are moving forward with a thorough managerial restructuring aimed at renewing top management and relaunching the company on the international market of advanced design."