Centro

Centro was the vehicle marque developed by Centrale Werkplaats N.V., later Centro Fabrieken, at Schiedam in the Netherlands. The Oudshoorn family-owned business began as a bicycle-frame builder: cycle dealers bought bare frames, completed them and sold them under their own badges. It also contract-built RAP mopeds for Stokvis & Zonen. Director J. H. van Neede, married into the Oudshoorn family, and designer/assistant Frans Verlinden moved toward own-brand powered vehicles in 1954. The original works occupied a former distillery at Buitenhavenweg 124 and employed a seasonally variable workforce of roughly forty to more than one hundred; a new factory opened at Jan van Riebeeckweg 2 in 1955. Centro's most ambitious early project was a scooter with a 188 cc ILO engine. Van Neede and Verlinden acquired twelve engines at Pinneberg, Centro made the frame, bus bodybuilder Verheul supplied sheet metal, and Hella/Pirelli supplied lighting and tires. A twelve-unit trial series drew favorable reactions but was financially unviable and disappeared in 1955. Centro then concentrated on 50 cc HMW-engined mopeds. Documented two-wheel names include 50N Standard, 50N de Luxe, 50N TT, Riviera, Planeet and the longer Dubbelzit/double-seat form. Those remain motorcycle/moped products and receive no automobile rows. The company nevertheless crossed into commercial motor vehicles with two three-wheelers. The Triporteur placed a carrier between two rear wheels and could be delivered bare or with a cargo box; many were exported to India. Dutch registration and commercial-vehicle histories place these vehicles in the late 1950s. Most motorcycle histories say all Centro mopeds used 50 cc HMW engines, while a Dutch truck-manufacturer register calls the 1956–57 commercial three-wheeler 120 cc. With no surviving factory sheet to reconcile whether that describes a larger Triporteur variant, the database preserves the conflict. The Motortruck was a separate industrial carrier for factory use, with its engine above the single front wheel rather than a conventional moped layout. Exact engine, payload, dimensions and road status are unavailable. Centro moved again to the Spaanse Polder shortly before collapsing as moped demand fell after the Dutch government sharply increased mandatory down payments on installment purchases. Sources variously stop the marque at 1957 or show named mopeds through 1960; the catalog uses 1954–60 as the disclosed activity envelope and does not infer continuous production. Two rows account for the complete defensible three-wheel commercial range. Centro is distinct from Malaguti's later Centro scooter, modern Bikkel Centro bicycles and unrelated companies or geographic uses.

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