Mapei
MAPEI is an Italian company founded in 1937 by Rodolfo Squinzi in Milan, Italy. It evolved from a small wall paint producer into a worldwide producer of adhesives, thinsets and sealants for buildings (building materials).
MAPEI stands for "Materiali Ausiliari Per l'Edilizia e l'Industria", Italian for "Auxiliary Materials for Construction and Industry".
History
In the 1930s Rodolfo Squinzi founded MAPEI as a small family business in Milan, Italy, with the intent to fill a void in the local construction industry by manufacturing interior and exterior paints and masonry repair products for commercial buildings, hospitals and airports. MAPEI commenced business on February 12, 1937, with a three-person workforce.
Under Squinzi's guidance, MAPEI expanded its manufacturing to adhesives for laying floors and floor coverings. The company's first adhesives were for linoleum, later followed by ceramic tile, stone, carpet, PVC and wood. As the flooring industry grew, especially the Italian ceramic tile market, MAPEI recognized a need for setting materials that would make tile installation faster and more secure, and developed products accordingly.
Rodolfo's son, Ing. Giorgio Squinzi, an industrial chemistry graduate, now heads MAPEI, which has become a leading manufacturer of mortars, adhesives, grouts, sealants, waterproofing agents, additives for concrete and other specialty products for the building industry. MAPEI remains a family-owned and -operated business and is a privately held entity generating annual revenues of more than one billion euros.
MAPEI Americas
In the 1970s, MAPEI began expanding across Europe and, in 1978, into Canada, where MAPEI Inc. housed the first manufacturing plant outside of Italy. In 1983, Nicholas Di Tempora, a businessperson from Canada, partnered with Dr. Squinzi to create MAPEI Corporation in the United States. In the following years, Di Tempora increased MAPEI Corporation's locations throughout the United States.
Operations in the Western Hemisphere are united under the banner of MAPEI Americas, consisting of affiliates and subsidiaries in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and South America. In 2000, headquarters were moved to Deerfield Beach, Florida, to centralize management of the various operations.
Today, Di Tempora has retired from his position, and Luigi Di Geso serves as President and CEO of MAPEI Americas. Di Geso was formerly the General Manager of Mapei, Inc., the Canadian subsidiary of MAPEI Group.
MAPEI reinvests 5% of its annual sales revenue into research and development of new products. The company's worldwide laboratories work on more than 150 new projects each year.
MAPEI Singapore
Mapei Far East Pte Ltd was constituted in Singapore in 1989 as the regional headquarters for the development of Mapei business in the region. It started off as a commercial subsidiary with a modest area of 500m² consisting of the warehouse and office. In 1995, the factory was established in one of Singapore’s pioneer industrial zones in Tuas, Jurong, in the western part of Singapore. Total area is 10,000m². Entering the third millennium in 2000 Mapei, after having established its reputation in Singapore as the world’s leading producer of Adhesives, embarked on strategies for introducing their technologies as a leading player for a wide range of chemical products for construction. Mapei Far East commenced on the development of the Building Line and Admixtures. Subsequently, in 2003, the Underground Technology Team (U.T.T.) regional base was set up in Singapore. UTT offers a full range of technical service and products to the shotcrete and TBM tunnel industry. This was followed in 2006 by the setting up of the Cement Additives Division regional base to service the cement factories in this region.
Mapei UK Ltd
Established in 1989, Mapei UK Ltd moved to the West Midlands in 1999, and in 2004 cemented its commitment to the UK market with the completion of a brand new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Halesowen, near Birmingham in the West Midlands.
The UK headquarters was Mapei's 47th manufacturing plant worldwide. The building accommodates manufacturing, stock, marketing, sales and technical services - all dedicated to the provision of efficient and friendly customer service - all under one roof. This 7.5 acre site is home to on-site training facilities, holding regular training and educational sessions.
Manufacturing facilities at Halesowen are capable of producing up to 103,000 tonnes of product annually. We now have 185 members of staff employed by Mapei UK to provide support and assistance to an ever increasing customer base.
Over 100 products are manufactured in the UK. In addition to an expanding manufacturing plant and offices in the West Midlands, Mapei UK Ltd has a dedicated team of Specification Managers nationwide and an expert Technical Services Department based at UK Headquarters. Mapei also offer a full NBS specification service and RIBA accredited CPD seminars are available on request.
Mapei UK has a fully equipped Training facility which offers general product range training and more indepth product demonstrative systems specifically designed for solutions to most conventional and exceptional of situations.
MAPEI Vietnam
Mapei Vietnam commenced production in 2006 in the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone, Quang Nam Province.
Specialty products
One technological improvement recently undertaken by MAPEI is its Fast-Track Ready technology. Identifying a need for completing speedy installations without compromising quality, MAPEI has developed products for the market that reduce the required steps of an installation and/or perform more quickly than current technology. More than 1,150 employees, at 15 locations in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and South America, develop, produce, sell and support MAPEI products in the western hemisphere.
Sports sponsorships
Giorgio Squinzi, the CEO of Mapei Group, which oversees worldwide operations, is a fan of road bicycle racing and under his leadership the company sponsored the highly successful Mapei cycling team in the 1990s, which included stars such as Tony Rominger, Abraham Olano, Johan Museeuw, Frank Vandenbroucke, Andrea Tafi, Michele Bartoli and Paolo Bettini. The company also sponsored a development team which nurtured the younger generation of riders such as 3-time world time trial champion Michael Rogers, Fabian Cancellara, Filippo Pozzato, and many others.
To increase the sport support, the company founded the Mapei Sport Center, a training center for endurance sports. Mapei also is a primary sponsor of NASCAR driver/owner Robby Gordon for several races for the 2007 NASCAR schedule. During the 2008 Sprint cup season Mapei sponsored the #7 of Robby Gordon at Kansas Motor Speedway. In 2009, Mapei will be the sponsor of the #7 Toyota driven by Robby Gordon in Phoenix, Daytona, Kansas, and Texas and also provided sponsorship on his #7 Dodge in the 2012 Daytona 500.
Mapei also owned and sponsored Italian football team U.S. Sassuolo Calcio, currently (as of 2015) playing in Italy's Serie A. Squinzi is their current chairman.[1]
See also
- List of Italian companies