Sacmi

SACMI (Società Anonima Cooperativa Meccanici Imola) is an international manufacturer of machines and complete plants for the ceramic tile, beverage, packaging, quality control process, chocolate processing machines and plastics industries. SACMI is a group based in Imola, Italy. Sacmi has branches in Iowa, US, Russia, Indonesia, Singapore, Germany, India, Portugal, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and Egypt. The company is a cooperative and was founded in 1919.
History.
Nine unemployed men from Imola founded the cooperative in 1919. The founders were Luigi Santandrea, Filiberto Gamberini, Tiepolo Castaldi, Paolo Nonni, Giovanni Bartoli, Guido Selvatici, Vincenzo Franceschelli, Aldo Galassi, and Armando Panari. Panari was from Mordano the others were from Imola They formed the Società Anonima Cooperativa Meccanici Imola from which comes the acronym SACMI. It began activity as a mechanical workshop engaged in general construction and repair. Its first administrator was a former mayor of Imola. Its headquarters were in premises donated by the town council. In the 1920s, it was the target of arson perpetrated by the Blackshirts who considered it as a "dangerous nest of the anti-Fascists". During the German occupation which began on 8 September 1943, the company dismantled its machinery and removed it to the rural areas so as not to be shipped to Germany by the occupying power. It restarted in 1945 and its first project was repair to the tile making presses of the "Cooperative Ceramica" a ceramic tile manufacturer in the vicinity, that had suffered damage in German air-raids. The company realised its ability to manufacture presses that were till then imported from Germany. This project was a turning point in the company's history. The company benefited from the post-war reconstruction efforts in Italy.