In
France, when you mention Yamaha, chances are that people will reply
“Jean-Claude Olivier”.
For 45
years, Jean-Claude-Olivier, or “JCO” as many people knew him, was the face of
and the brains behind Yamaha’s presence in France. So much so, in fact, that it
sometimes seemed as if Yamaha France was a one-man band. Of course, that’s not
the case, but it is true that Olivier did a vast amount of hard work to durably
implant Yamaha motorcycles in France.
 |
| A typical day at the office for "JCO" |
JCO
joined Sonauto in 1964. At the time Sonauto officially distributed Porsche cars
in France and had recently acquired the rights to do likewise with Yamaha motorcycles,
having recently taken over from early importers Levallois Motos. Auguste Veuillet,
Sonauto’s boss was a close friend of JCO’s father, Gonzague, (the pair had
notably won the 1955 24 Heures de Paris endurance race). Olivier Sr. asked
Veuillet if he could take on his son as an intern. Veuillet accepted, and the
young Jean-Claude quickly found himself at the wheel of a Peugeot J5 van with
four Yamahas in the back (a 50cc, an 80cc, a 125cc and a 250cc), crisscrossing
France in order to set up a stable dealership network. After one year, in 1965,
the network had sold 117 bikes. Three years later, in 1968, that figure had
risen to 1,000 units.
At the
end of the Sixties, Yamaha brought out a range of dual-purpose trail bikes that
instantly met success on the American market. JCO realised that these simple
and easy-to-ride little bikes would be ideal for making motorcycling appealing
to a wider client base. And so it was that, thanks to his circle of friends and
business relations, he managed to get Brigitte Bardot on a small AT-1 for one
day (presumably without any mishap to the French star’s person). Naturally, hordes
of paparazzi and proper press photographers were on hand to immortalise the
event. Predictably, Yamaha’s sales figures jumped sky-high. [...]
