The Sacmi brand “turnkey” winery will soon be a reality. This is the outlook following thepurchase of the Defranceschi Spa brand (a historic oenology machine/plant designer and marketer) with headquarters in Laives (Bolzano) and production facilities in Mordano (Bologna), just 5 km from Sacmi Imola, its new parent company and that of the world-leading Sacmi industrial engineering group.

Until yesterday Defranceschi was the symbol of another piece of Italian industrial history swept away by the economic crisis (Defranceschi had filed for bankruptcy in January). But now, thanks to the Sacmi Group, the company has been put back on its feet in record time: the Sacmi Group, in fact, is already a leading force in the wine-making industry (and a provider of labellers, filling and end-of-line solutions). “Already, for some years now”, explains Vezio Bernardi, General Manager of Sacmi Beverage and ‘director’ of the entire operation, “we’ve been developing and consolidating complete bottling lines for soft drinks, traditionally referred to as ‘the PET world’. The outstanding competitiveness and maturity of this market has led to the development of top-flight technical and logistical know-how which is particularly suitable for transfer to allied industries”.

“Above all”, points out Vezio Bernardi, “the operation proved to be extremely smooth from a financial standpoint. The purchase of the property in Mordano (the auction closed at just under 2.7 million euro) and the adjoining land suitable for building was, in itself, more than worth the price, without even taking into account the equipment, which was in excellent condition and immediately made available to us”. However, the point of the takeover goes much further: “On the one hand, to interface those industry-related skills and solutions already developed by Sacmi (from BAG-IN-BOX to labellers, from filling to labelling) with this new acquisition and, on the other, to extend the product range to provide fully comprehensive wine-making solutions, from grape presses to stalk removers, from storage tanks to raw material and finished product quality control equipment”.