Of
Christian Benna
Giorgio Garuzzo rejects Exor’s operation to sell the truck and van company to Tata’s Indians
We are republishing Christian Benna’s interview with Giorgio Garuzzo, published in August, one of the most appreciated by our readers in 2025.
«It took us seven years to create the European leader in trucks and vans, acquiring all the competitors in the UK, Spain and Italy, including Ford New Holland. Now overnight Iveco has become Indian, Turin is losing the last piece of great industry and I feel really very sad.” For Giorgio Garuzzo, 87 years old, former Fiat top manager for 20, CEO of Iveco from 1984 until 1991, and who left the group in 1996 due to disagreements with Romiti, the sale of Iveco to Tata Motor is the most “serious” and “dramatic” industrial divestiture of the Exor galaxy because it constitutes a way of no return for the future of the country in the days in which the redundancy fund runs throughout the Piedmontese metalworking sector (+68% in the first six months of the year). «After the sales of Comau, Marelli, Fiat, and now Iveco, I wonder what our young people will do. Are they all employed in tourism? Do we really still believe this fairy tale?”
THE CGIL TRADE UNION MEMBER: «DEAFANING SILENCE OF POLITICS»
Engineer Garuzzo, what doesn’t convince you about Iveco’s marriage with the Indians of Tata Motors?
«Tata buys our commercial network, and therefore the market. Let’s not be fooled by the usual words. If it is convenient to move production to India, he will do so. I fear above all for the future of the Italian small engine factories, such as Foggia but also Suzzara. And then the supply chain of suppliers is at risk as it comes out very weakened by this operation. It’s always the same script: we saw it in the past with the former Fiat Ferroviaria. As soon as it was bought, the French Alstom sold the pendulum license to the Chinese. Even before with Telettra. And more recently with Marelli which was acquired, ended up in financial crisis and then bought by creditors. When the head of a multinational is elsewhere, Italy, but above all Turin, no longer counts for anything.”
For some time it has been said in financial and industrial circles: «Iveco cannot go ahead alone because it is too small, it needs an international partner». What do you think?
«Bullshit. Iveco is a leader in its sector: number one in Italy, Spain, England and leader in France and Germany. Many years ago, more than 40, when I took over the company, Iveco was losing a lot of money: 120 billion lire in a six-month period. Then it became a money machine, made acquisitions, elevated itself to a technological leader. Could she go on alone? Certainly. In Europe the only real competitor is Mercedes.”
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Tata reassured: «Turin will remain central» in the dynamics of the group.
«It will certainly be like this for a while. But not forever. Tata has nothing to bring to Iveco from a technological or industrial point of view. It’s not an equal exchange.”
So why did John Elkann sell the last gem?
«For the money. And because the industry is no longer of interest: too complex to manage. Better to buy a rare earth mine. I am convinced that sooner or later they will also sell CNH.”
The lawyer Gianni Agnelli, on the other hand, wanted to relaunch Iveco at all costs by also injecting capital.
«Romiti and Agnelli entrusted me with a company that was in bankruptcy. But I have never had large investments available. We made acquisitions with debt. It worked. But it was another era. Today, who cares about national industry in Italy?
The Municipality of Turin has called the companies to the work commission. Will it be enough to have guarantees? Is government intervention needed with golden power?
«Politics is struggling to stem these sales. But it must monitor and ask for guarantees. In my opinion, however, more courage is needed, provided that it is not too late. Maybe greater involvement of the unions.”
In what sense?
«In my time it was unthinkable but today I believe it is necessary for trade unions to enter the boards of large companies, just as happens in Germany. It is the only force that can ask for guarantees for workers and suppliers. Let’s not forget that Iveco has many Italian suppliers. Who knows if Tata will continue to work with them, and above all under what conditions. We are losing the industry in Italy, we need a strategic plan.”
How do you see the future of Turin?
«On the margins. In the city there is a lot of talk about tourism and events. But in this way we only produce poor and precarious work. And our young people go to work abroad. We can’t just turn out bartenders and waiters.”
His invective about Turin being a “city for waiters” already expressed at the time of the sale of Comau angered many. What’s wrong with tourism?
“Nothing. And I love waiters and their profession. But we have to be honest: there is no tourism industry in Italy. We even sell off the big hotels to foreign groups, we don’t have a national airline. So we have to settle for small businesses that can offer little to our young people. Is our future really serving lunch to foreign tourists?”
Mirafiori “resists” in the city. The hybrid Fiat 500 line will launch in November. Will it be enough to relaunch the car?
«This is living on alms. In the roaring years Mirafiori produced 600 thousand cars and employed 70 thousand workers. Now if all goes well we have 35 thousand cars and 3 thousand workers in the body shop. The moment is truly dramatic.”
How do you get out of it?
«The country’s know-how cannot be sold off, ever and at any price. The only positive aspect of this industrial dismemberment story is the sale of the military part of Iveco to Leonardo. The former Finmeccanica is now a multinational of great weight and capacity. Both in Defense and Aerospace. In these sectors Turin will still be able to have its say. On the car, I fear that we are at the end of a season that was formidable but which now no longer exists.”
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January 1, 2026 (changed January 1, 2026 | 07:18)
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