Mapei was founded in Milan in 1937, and today is the world's leading manufacturer of adhesives and ancillary products for installing floors and all types of wall coverings in the world. The company also specialises in other chemical products for the building industry, from waterproofing products and special mortars and admixtures for concrete, to products for the renovation of historic buildings. With 46 facilities operating in all 5 continents, Mapei has developed a capillary technical-commercial network in all the most important countries around the world.
A LONG STORY A GREAT FAMILY
An unbreakable bond holds between the Squinzi family and Mapei:
a business idea that gave rise to a major Groups
The name stands for “Auxiliary materials for building and industry”: Mapei was founded on 12th February 1937 in the suburbs of Milan.
It is the story of a very small firm and family of businessmen – the Squinzis – whohave developed the Company into a leading multinational in the world of adhesives for building.
A success story which can boast something really special: Mapei has never closed a financial year in the red and has never resorted to redundancy payments.
In 1937 the firm had only three members of staff and began dealing in paints, coatings and materials for insides and outside coverings of buildings, hospitals and airports. The idea was Rodolfo Squinzi's, the Company founder, who led Mapei towards its initial success: focusing on a niche in the market for adhesives for installing wall and floor coverings. Mapei's mission was quite clear in Rodolfo Squinzi's mind: “being able to read the trend in the sector for adhesives and chemical products for building and always keeping one step ahead, so as to supply the market with innovative products serving its emerging needs”.
Initially the firm manufactured adhesives for linoleum and then for ceramics, stone materials, carpet, PVC and wood.When the Italian ceramics market exploded in the 1970s,Mapei was ready to take advantage of this great opportunity and managed to offer a wide range of special products designed to make laying tiles faster and safer by replacing conventional cementitious mortar.
Specialising in the products it manufactures was one of Mapei's strengths and the firm soon began marketing other types of adhesives, sealants, special mortars, waterproofers and admixtures for concreteAt the same time Rodolfo Squinzi, with the help of his son Giorgio, who graduated in Industrial Chemistry, confirmed another of the Company's strong points: the constant upgrading of products thanks to the work of a cutting-edge research centre. This decision enabled the Company to break onto foreign markets,graduall exporting an increasing amount of its own products. In 1978 Mapei's process of internationalising its manufacturing really began when it opened a factory in Canada.
Giorgio Squinzi pushed this process with strong determination, even after his father passed away in 1984.This made the firm expand across five continents with a number of manufacturing plants opening in strategic places for the world building market. This expansion process was geared to a clear strategy: each factory was to reflect the industrial culture of the place where it was located, and so had to be Canadian in Canada, French in France and American in the United States etc. Among the last and most prestigious acquisitions it is worth mentioning Sopro, a well-known German leading building chemicals manufacturer, which in 2002 joined the Mapei Group.
The idea behind this winning internationalising strategy is that only people who deeply know the local culture can really understand the needs of the people operating in that given area. In addition, each plant needs its own research laboratory to ensure quality control of its products, as quality is closely tied to the type of raw materials used in any given location.
The internationalising of the Company resulted in an almost vertical rise in turnover and made Mapei a world famous name everywhere from the Americas to the Far East, from Europe to Oceania and from the Middle East to Africa.
In 1994 the Company acquired the “white glue” Italian firm Vinavil.
For Mapei, one of Vinavil's main customers, this was an important way of taking upstream control of strategic raw materials (vinyl acetate polymers), which allowed the firm to extend its range of products.This was the start of a new phase in development, which has also continued into the third millennium with further acquisitions on the front of manufacturing finished products and in the integration of strategic raw materials into the manufacturing process.
So down the years the Mapei Group has incorporated a cement factory in Poland, Gorka Cement, a quality sand extraction industry in Italy, VAGA, and, in 2006, the German manufacturer of bituminous materials Rasco Bitumentechnik.
The third generation of the Squinzi family also joined the Company.
Mapei now owns 51 subsidiaries and 47 plants in 24 different countries.
1937年，馬貝集團誕生於義大利米蘭。