Bonfiglioli Acquires Sampingranaggi

Bonfiglioli S.p.A. announced it has acquire Italy-based gear manufacturer Sampingranaggi for over €7 million at an auction.

The acquisition includes the assets of the Italian and Chinese Sampingranaggi companies (Bentivoglio and Funo di Argelato in Italy and Shanghai, China), their respective warehouses, the Sampingranaggi brand, patents, design and products for robotics, as well as all the staff. Sampingranaggi’s 2020 turnover was €21 million, of which €15 million in Italy and €6 million in China.

Fausto Carboni, CEO of the Bonfiglioli Group, said: “For Bonfiglioli, Sampingranaggi represents a great opportunity 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, that is part of the acquisition.”

Bonfiglioli S.P.A. signed a “Bonfiglioli/Sampingranaggi integration agreement” with the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Metropolitan City of Bologna and the union FIOM-CGIL Emilia Romagna. 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.

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.

Bonfiglioli’s Chairwoman, Sonia Bonfiglioli, commented on the history and the future of the two companies: “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.

“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.”