Business manager, Franck Alart had developed the BMW brand in Perpignan. He was also a leader of weight of the Catalan XIII and very close to the Catalan Dragons. He died in Perpignan, this Friday, March 24 at the age of 88.
It is a figure of Perpignan life who passed away this Friday, March 24 in the morning following a long illness. Franck Alart was a visionary businessman who developed the family car dealership founded by his father, Marcel Alart, a mechanic with golden fingers from Saint-Jean-Lasseille, in 1958. It would become the famous BMW-Mini dealership in Perpignan. That Franck Alart will pass on to his son… Franck, then joined by his sister Nathalie. Franck Alart had three children.
His voice, his verve to tell his territory, his friends, his family, his rugby, his projects and the stories of a time that those under twenty cannot know captivated the audiences. She said a lot of her charm, of this almost British elegance in the service of a passion for crunching life without end. There was Raimu, mixed with Roger Moore, when he opened the box to memories of the Homeric showdowns XV-XIII of the 70s.
Franck Alart fell into the “reservoir” automobile very small. His father, Marcel Alart, made a small red coupé, the Alart GT, exhibited at the automobile city of Mulhouse, and left the garage on Boulevard Clémenceau in Perpignan. Franck Alart then developed the family business. He rides regularly at the Paris Auto Show. This is where he landed the BMW dealership. However, he does not have the money to buy the BMW 700. “You will pay me when you sell it”, bet the agent of the German mark. Bet raised. “That’s how we got the BMW plate”, recalled Franck Alart to The Independent in 2018, for the 60th anniversary of the concession.
Bernard Guasch: “When we met Franck Alart once, we never forgot him”
In 1981, the garage headed for avenue de Grande-Bretagne. He lived there the good years of Series 3, then 5 and 7. Franck Junior learned mechanics with his grandfather who was always present. The concession will take its ease in the early 2000s avenue de Prades on 3400 m2. Nathalie Alart will join him there in 2007 at the wheel of Mini.
“Franck Alart is a great character, one of those men of another generation as they no longer exist, of infinite elegance, who has developed his business”, pays homage to him Bernard Guasch. Franck Alart was the close friend of the father of the president of the Catalans Dragons. “Franck played as a junior in the Catalan XIII, but above all he was an exceptional manager, many times vice-president from the 60s to the 90s. He experienced the great hours and the more difficult moments of the XIII in France. He has When in the early 2000s, we decided to bring Saint-Estève and the Catalan XIII together, he was, along with Ollet, Comes, Boff and Gau, those who put me at the head of the club. It was Franck who appointed me volunteer president. You know, when we met Franck Alart once, we never forgot him”.