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 S.p.A. had already expressed in Sampingranaggi, generated by the total synergy of Sampingranaggi’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 the assets of the Italian and Chinese Sampingranaggi companies (Bentivoglio –BO, Funo di Argelato-BO and Shanghai-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.
Precisely with this in mind, on 3 March 2021 Bonfiglioli S.P.A. had signed a “Bonfiglioli/Sampingranaggi integration agreement” with the Emilia-Romagna Region, Metropolitan City of Bologna and FIOM-CGIL Emilia Romagna. FIOM-CGIL Bologna and the Sampingranaggi joint trade union representatives (RSU), a pact that the Group has declared complementary and functional to its own bid, with a view to safeguarding the production continuity of Sampingranaggi and the people who work there, currently about 80 employees.
A priority will in fact 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.
With this acquisition, Bonfiglioli S.p.A. will be able to increase its production verticalization both in Italy and China, accessing the robotics market also through the development of other extremely precise and efficient products.
The Chairwoman Sonia Bonfiglioli commented: “I like to think that, if Sampingranaggi had not already been there in the post-war period, today Bonfiglioli would not exist. 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.”
“For Bonfiglioli, SAMP represents a great opportunity,” underlined Fausto Carboni, CEO of the Group, “in many aspects. From an industrial point of view, it offers us the possibility to integrate some strategic component productions, including bevel gears, while in terms of business development it allows us to enter the robotic gearbox market, where there is ample room for growth in future, both in Italy and in China through their local company, which that is part of the acquisition.”
