PJL-22

Sofidel, Company profile

Working together to build and develop a fundamental principle, a consolidated whole, a philosophy shared throughout all the Sofidel companies, requires the company and its employees to act as one. Staff, suppliers and partners grow and improve with each new challenge. Suppliers that started out with a very small workforce are still with us and have now become national and international companies. Working together to build and develop...”

If Sofidel had a “corporate” motto, this would be the philosophy it expressed. These words have been fundamental from the start for the Cavaliere Emi Stefani and his partner, the late Giuseppe Lazzareschi. His son Luigi shared this philosophy and continued to build it further when he arrived at Soffass in 1984, after finishing his studies and training in the United States, where he specialised in marketing, communications and corporate management.

Indeed, the arrival of Luigi Lazzareschi, who joined Emi Stefani at the head of Sofidel, provided the group with an enormous boost thanks to the new and perfect synergy between the two partners. From 1994 onwards the group began to grow into the colossal enterprise that we all know today. The philosophy was strengthened by the strong and closely-knit team of executives, which worked together with the owners from the beginning to build and consolidate this success.

As the fifth-largest group in Europe and the biggest of the Italian firms, Sofidel has established its presence on the market in little more than thirty years.

History dates back to 1966 when the Stefani & Lazzareschi Paper Mill was founded.

After the first three years, the two partners decide to bet everything on a new high-productivity company, in a location with plenty of space and better communications networks. The FinePaper mill is founded in Porcari in 1969.

Since then, growth and investment activity have never faltered: Soffass, the group's first paper products unit for brand-name merchandise, is founded in 1972, and in 1979, Delicarta begins producing for the foreign market. In 1987, Soffass' Regina brand is marketed for the first time.

In 1982, Delicarta also begins to operate as a paper mill, with the 2.70m PM1. This is joined five years later by the second PM, and in 1994 by the PM3 with 5.40m. wide reels.

By 1993 Delicarta is already the top Italian tissue exporter.

In 1997 Papernet is founded for AfH articles. Building starts on the first foreign plant, Delipaper, in France. Converting will start there in 1999 and the first paper machine is installed in 2000. Eventually, the facility will come to possess more than 76,000 square metres of covered production area. In the same year, Sofidel decides to move into the Eastern European markets and founds the Delitissue mill in Poland.

The merger between FinePaper and Soffass in 2001 leads to the birth of the new Soffass SpA, while Delitissue begins production on the new converting in Poland and the group buys all the shares in the Fibrocellulosa paper mill in Italy.

In 2002, Sofidel purchases Cartiera di Monfalcone, founds Intertissue in Cardiff, UK, and receives the prestigious Ecolabel certification. •

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