Linen, precious as the future

Linen, precious as the future

Linen, precious as the future

The Roaring Twenties

SenatoreBorletti

25 Mar 2024

LINIFICIO

The negotiations for a merger with Manifatture Italiane Riunite continued despite Ettore Ponti‘s death.

On 1 January 1920, a new structure was outlined under the leadership of the new president Senator Borletti d’Arosio.  The plants in Villa d’Almè, Pontevico, Vimercate, Oreno, Concorezzo, Sampierdarena, Viserba, Ronco Scrivia and Debba join the already large group of Linificio and Canapificio Nazionale.

The expansion continued with the addition of factories in Melegnano and S. Angelo Lodigiano (owned by Castellini & C.), Crocetta del Montello (Canapificio Veneto Antonini e Ceresa) and Frattamaggiore (Canapificio Napoletano).

The new set-up also required an improvement in general management. In addition to administrative and management changes, the construction of the headquarters in Milan at Via Ansperto 5, designed by Piero Portaluppi, began. The overhaul of the commercial apparatus was also part of the improvement plan and Agencies were established in Genoa, Venice, Naples, Rome and Buenos Aires.

The 1920s were also a period of great technical and technological renewal of the facilities.

Not only that: more industrial activities needed more energy. For this reason, construction of the Cassano d’Adda hydroelectric plant (60 million kwh per year) began in the same period, designed by engineer Pietro Rusca, former director of the Cassano plant.

However, the shadow of the world crisis loomed and the first winds of change began to blow. Before they also swept through the company, there was time to acquire the factories in Lugo (Canapificio Val di Senio), Cento (Canapificio Centese and Melloni), Pioppe di Salvaro (Salvatore A. Turri company) and S. Maria Capua a Vetere (Canapificio Italiano), with which the subsidiary S.A. Industrie Canapiere Italiane was created.

Linificio e Canapificio was thus ready to face the next decade with a strength equal to the events that would sweep the world.