HISTORY
Fedrigoni is
a global enterprise of five integrated companies producing everything from art paper and stationery to paper security systems and banknotes.
120 years of entrepreneurial challenges based on solid, tangible ethical principles, prestigious acquisitions and the creation of innovative firms have made the Fedrigoni Group into one of the top five in Europe operating in the area of special papers with a high degree of aesthetic and technological content.
Fedrigoni has been linked with paper-making since as long ago as 1717, when the budding young paper merchant Giuseppe Fedrigoni founded the San Colombano paper mill near the ancient northern fortress town of Rovereto. In 1888, one of his descendants, Giuseppe Antonio Fedrigoni, founded the Verona paper mill, transforming production to the industrial scale and launching today’s Ferdigoni Cartiere, a
family tradition
that Fedrigoni is proud to continue to this day, having closed the 2009 financial year with truly excellent results.
In 1938, Giuseppe Fedrigoni’s grandson Gianfranco bought the paper mill in Varone, near Trento, to complement the plant already owned in Verona, which was completely destroyed in a devastating air-raid in 1945, shortly before the end of World War II. Without waiting for state aid or funds from the Marshall Plan, the family and members of staff invested their own private savings to rebuild the facility.
In 1963, the company opened a third paper-mill in Arco to produce the first punched cards for IBM machines, ushering in the computer age. In 1977, 3M used paper from the Varone mill to produce the first trial batch of Post-It™ notes.
The group set up its first European distribution companies in Germany and Spain in 1987, followed by Fedrigoni UK and Fedrigoni France in 1993.
Just as the Euro was introduced as the single European currency in 2002, the Group took over a controlling interest in the historical paper company Cartiere Miliani Fabriano – Italian cultural heritage since 1264 – which is licensed to produce paper for the Euro banknotes.
2006 brought the launch of the group’s fifth subsidiary, Hong Kong-based Fedrigoni Asia.
| |