Richard D. (Dick) Marine - Service Manager (Continued)

Factory Main Entrance in Battle Creek, sometime in 1951 - about the time Dick joined Oliver (Click pic to enlarge)	Sometime in 1957 or 1958, The Franchi Co., of Brescia, Italy, sent Ercole Prandini, production director, to Battle Creek to study production methods.  Subsequent to that visit, Dick Marine was assigned to travel to Brescia to train the Franchi staff on servicing the outboards. Although it is mentioned in the article to the left that Franchi was already producing their own line of outboards, there is no evidence that they did.  The Franchi line was a "branded" line, with the only difference being the Franchi motors and Olivers was the name on the machine.  All evidence points to the fact that all Franchis' were produced in Battle Creek. (click pic to enlarge)
More to come shortly...