Zucchetti's success story first began in a small foundry in Valduggia (in the province of Vercelli) set up by Alfredo Zucchetti in 1929. Today the Zucchetti.Kos Group, led by the third generation, Elena and Carlo, with cousins Marco and Paolo Zucchetti, consists of 4 factories and a logistics centre covering a total of 72,000 square metres, employing 400 people and producing 2 million articles every year.
The basic values of Zucchetti have always been innovation, design, and quality: the essential cornerstones that have guided the firm throughout its history. After an early 'experimental' phase manufacturing industrial valves and fittings, in 1950 the factory was converted to produce fully chromed tapware. In the early 1950s the firm brought in Alfredo's son Mario, an enlightened entrepreneur who went on to lead the company for nearly fifty years. Mario undertook a major expansion of the production, technological and commercial facilities, and completed the large new headquarters at Gozzano (in the province of Novara) which he equipped with advanced manufacturing facilities. Under Mario's direction the Zucchetti brand exhibited at all the most important international trade fairs. During the post-1945 reconstruction period, Mario conquered foreign markets by opening the first Zucchetti export office in Milan, and then in 1958 came the first significant overseas contracts; Canada and Australiabecame important new markets for the firm.In 1970 was founded the second company of the Group, Zucchetti Mario S.p.A., specialized in hot forging of brass and other metal alloys. While Omez S.p.A. dedicated to molding of plastics, was established in 1983.
These were the seventies when the company begins its journey through the world of design. Mario Zucchetti, president of the new Zucchetti SpA, strongly believed in the importance of the design image of any product, as a synthesis of innovative technical and aesthetic values expressed through the content of the product itself: the assumption of excellence in its formal and substantive qualities.
In 2000 came the Spin series designed by Raul Barbieri, and Zucchetti began a long-term collaboration with Matteo Thun. Thun's design for the Isy single lever mixer tap, in collaboration with Antonio Rodriguez, was the first in the world to have a hidden cartridge technology, and won all the most important international awards and prizes. As evidence of Zucchetti's strong interest in expanding into foreign markets, in 2004 the firm opened a subsidiary in Poland, to develop the eastern European markets; then in 2005 another subsidiary was opened in Shanghai to establish a presence in the Asian markets and in 2010, last but not less importante, a new subsidiary was opened in US, to further strengthen the already strong presence on this market.
Chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland
Craven Hill Gardens, London
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