Chavdar (company)

Chavdar (Bulgarian: Чавдар) was a Bulgarian bus builder located in the town of Botevgrad, Sofia Province. Founded by Racho Dzhambov in 1924, the company that would later become "Chavdar" produced around 200 buses between 1927 and 1947 on chassis from Ford Motor Company, Mercedes-Benz and Dodge. In 1948 the company was nationalized and acquired the name "Chavdar" in honour of the revolutionary Chavdar Voyvoda. It produced buses on chassis of Skoda 706 RTO but later shifted to license production of Setra and Steyr buses. It also developed several models on its own, which had good commercial success. The company closed in 1999.

In 1924 Racho Valkov Djambov (1894-1983) opened an iron workshop in Botevgrad, Bulgaria. In 1927, Racho met with Ivan Valkov who had a transport business using rebuilt ambulances. He gave Racho one platform from Fiat to built his first vehicle on. After World War II, Bulgaria was ruled by a communist government and Djambov's workshop was nationalized. The new company was named Chavdar and by 1948 it had started producing buses based on Škoda RTO. Until 1956 the production of the company increased by 150%.

In 1962, the company started production of the models M65 and M66 on chassis of Skoda 706 RTO, which were very popular for city and intercity traffic. In the same year, production of midi buses based on the Soviet GAZ-51(1962-1969) started.

In 1966, the new models M80 (city bus) and M81 (intercity coach) appeared, based again on Škoda chassis. In 1968, between 400 and 500 units were produced. The same year, the factory started modernization. New machines, new work strategy and new workplaces were described as the future success of the company.

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