De Simon Group S.p.A. is a bus manufacturer and coachbuilder based in Osoppo, Udine, Italy.
History
The company was founded in 1925 by Giovanni De Simon, who started assembling wooden-body buses for the local public transport. Later, under the management of his son Ilvo, the company introduced steel for interurban and touristic coaches, using Fiat, OM, Lancia or Alfa chassis.[1][2]
In the sixties they started assembling buses on Fiat truck-chassis and sold over a thousand units to the public transport companies in Italy.
The 1976 Friuli earthquake, with its epicenter in Osoppo, ruined most of the plants in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, including De Simon's. Ilvo with his sons Giovanni and Alvio managed to rebuild the plant in only two years' time. The new site covered 70,000 square meters and included two office buildings and a test track.