Balkan

Following the end of the Second World War, the DAR factory in Lovech was renamed to Plant 14. In 1954, a decision from Comecon ended aircraft production in Plant 14, which would result in many workers of the factory to lose their jobs. To counter this and also to meet the huge demand for personal vehicles which were lacking in Bulgaria, a decision came from the management of the plant, saying that Plant 14 will produce motorcycles and automobiles. The project manager was Eng. Dimitar Damyanov, who entered the factory as a specialist in aircraft construction. After the closure of the aircraft industry, the name of the factory was changed several times. It was named the Bicycle and Motorcycle Plant, the Balkan Automobile Plant, the Balkan United Enterprise, the Balkan United Plants, and the Balkan Machine-Building Plant. Since 1965, the plant has been called Balkan. In addition to motorcycles, the company produced Pirin-Fiat, Moskvitch and GAZ cars. Due to legislative changes in Bulgaria, motorcycles have been manufactured with turn signals from 1969 onwards. Motorcycles with 250 cc engine displacement were produced until 1971, the production of mopeds up to 50 cc lasted until 1975. A total of 271,562 motorcycles and mopeds were produced.