It is easy – and at the same time enjoyable – to retrace the history of Cimberio, because doing so also means retracing the history of a country, a territory, and an era marked by young dreamers who thought like entrepreneurs without yet knowing they were.
It takes an effort of memory and, at the same time, of imagination, going all the way back to 1927. In that year, a very young Giacomo Cimberio had an intuition fueled by a good dose of courage (or, if we prefer, madness). In the area around Lake Orta, in what would later become famous as the “faucet district,” Giacomo Cimberio, together with his friends Massimo Gioria, Giocondo and Giovanni Fortis, decided to launch a brass-processing business, taking advantage of the birth of the very first faucet manufacturers.
Those were years of great expansion, later driven by the economic boom that characterized the postwar period – an increase in customers, growth in production, and the refinement of manufacturing techniques. “F.lli Fortis-Cimberio-Gioria” grew until 1956, when the partners, by mutual agreement, decided to part ways in order to ensure a solid future for their respective companies. And so, on January 7, 1957, Cimberio was founded, a company in which the 53-year-old Giacomo immediately involved his 19-year-old son Renzo.
The company has always operated in the manufacturing sector, specifically carrying out research, design, production, and business-to-business marketing of faucets, gate valves, valves, fittings, and related components for water and gas distribution networks. In the 1960s, Giacomo Cimberio was able to read the signs of the economic explosion that was about to transform postwar Italy, launching a business capable of maintaining high quality standards by leveraging the technologies that time would gradually make available.
The values on which the company was founded by Giacomo Cimberio were passed on to his son Renzo, who kept them alive and handed them down to his son Roberto, the current owner and CEO. Quality and innovation have always been the main drivers of Cimberio’s activities. Over the decades, the company has established itself as one of the leading players in the production of brass valves for the HVAC and plumbing sector and, in the 1990s, opened the door to internationalization by founding its first foreign subsidiaries.
Management has always resisted the temptation to relocate production abroad, keeping the core of its operations in the two manufacturing plants in San Maurizio d’Opaglio and Berzonno di Pogno. The Cusio area, together with the nearby Valsesia, represents the cradle of the faucet district, known worldwide as a symbol of Made in Italy in the faucet industry.
Founded as an artisan-style operation, today Cimberio is a global company that works and lives exactly as its founder had envisioned and dreamed it – guided by the ideal of quality and innovation.
This is why it was only natural from the very beginning for Cimberio to be counted among the Italian companies awarded the title of “Historic Brand.” Because the history of Cimberio truly mirrors the history of Italian enterprise and entrepreneurship, with those unique and distinctive characteristics that make our SMEs something one of a kind in the world.
Today the challenges continue, in a constant balance between respect for the company’s history and a drive toward the future. The challenges calling us forward involve adapting to new markets and ongoing international changes, as well as sustainability and environmental awareness. Challenges that Cimberio has embraced by adopting technology and the new potential of artificial intelligence to move into the world of energy efficiency – dreaming of a different future made of smart buildings and increasingly sustainable solutions, made of innovation and also – indeed, above all – of history.
