Italian company Bonfiglioli S.p.A. has won the auction at the Court of Bologna for the acquisition of Sampingranaggi from Bentivoglio for €7 million. This acquisition confirms the interest Bonfiglioli had already expressed in Sampingranaggi, generated by the total synergy of the company’s know-how with the Group’s design and production strategies.
The move preserves and consolidates the Sampingranaggi strategic supply chain, strengthening their role as a technological pivot for the Bologna regional and metropolitan area. The acquisition includes all of the assets of the Italian and Chinese Sampingranaggi companies (Bentivoglio and Funo di Argelato in Bologna, Italy, and Shanghai in China), their respective warehouses, the Sampingranaggi brand, patents, designs and products for robotics, as well as all their staff. Sampingranaggi’s 2020 turnover was €21 million, of which €15 million in Italy and €6 million in China.
With a view to safeguarding the production continuity of Sampingranaggi and the people who work there, now a priority will be the appropriate enhancement of the workforce, also through the provision of the Bonfiglioli Academy’s continuous training programs, now available also to the Sampingranaggi staff, with a view to a synergic and transversal use of their respective skills.
The acquisition enables Bonfiglioli to increase its production verticalization both in Italy and China, integrating some strategic component productions such as bevel gears, while in terms of business development it allows the company to enter the robotic gearbox market through the development of other extremely precise and efficient products.
The operation has in addition a special meaning, due to the fact that Clementino Bonfiglioli, original founder of Bonfiglioli, started its professional path in Sampingranaggi.
“I like to think that, if Sampingranaggi had not already been there in the post-war period, today Bonfiglioli would not exist – commented Sonia Bonfiglioli, chairwoman of Bonfiglioli -. Because it all began there, in 1948, when a young technical graduate started out on a valuable journey of work and experience that, three years later, led him to set up his first business. So beyond this ‘sentimental’ reunion, which makes me very happy, and the full complementarity of Sampingranaggi and Bonfiglioli products, my first thought, however, goes to the women and men of this company who now become an important part of Bonfiglioli. Many times we could have bought plants to produce bevel gears (that are the heart of gearboxes), but without the human hand, machines are merely stationary atoms. Their skills, knowledge and experience are the great heritage of Sampingranaggi, and today become part of the great Bonfiglioli family. My warmest welcome goes to them”.