ALBERTO COCCHI
A new company is joining Marchesini Group. The latest arrival is M.A.R. S.p.A., a company from Lainate (Milan) specialised in the construction of machinery for packaging liquids and powders in glass and plastic bottles, syringes, carpules and other containers for the pharmaceutical industry. This operation further extends the array of technologies available to Marchesini Group for the packaging of products in the Pharma world.
Founded by Silvio Pravettoni in 1967, M.A.R. S.p.A. is perhaps best known for constructing one of the world’s first pharmaceutical product packaging lines complete with sterile weighing system, which appeared in the late ‘70s. Production process sterility – an essential requirement when packaging products like vaccines and cancer drugs for distribution in pharmacies and hospitals – has continued to be a distinguishing feature of M.A.R. S.p.A., which, in the usual Marchesini Group tradition, will continue to operate from its current site, protecting the continuity of the business and the quality standards of the finished product.
With this acquisition, the numerous companies in Lombardy within the Marchesini Group now include eight in the Milan area, and Lombardy itself is second only to Emilia-Romagna – where the Group’s headquarters is located – in terms of number of production sites. There could be no better confirm that Lombardy’s industrial fabric is the ideal partner for Emilia’s Packaging Valley, where Europe’s most important supply chains for the production of pharmaceutical and beauty product packaging machines are concentrated.
“M.A.R. S.p.A. will retain its Lainate base, its organisation and its specialised personnel, but with the aim of expanding with the employment of more technicians and design engineers,” explained Pietro Cassani, CEO of Marchesini Group, who will become sole director of M.A.R. as a result of the operation. “Its range of filling products for packaging powders and liquids, including in sterile environment, is an opportunity for enriching the range of complete lines offered by Marchesini Group, especially through Corima, our company specialised in technologies which use robotised solutions to guarantee the highest degree of precision in controlled contamination environments. The synergies also extend to Group companies such as CMP Phar.ma for process inspection and Lombardy-based businesses SEA Vision, Auteco and Dott. Bonapace for the production of vision and data acquisition systems, process automation and laboratory machines, respectively.”
“M.A.R. S.p.A. has a very valuable customer portfolio,” added Nicola Di Biase, formerly the company’s historic general manager and named as its legal representative today. “The dowry we bring to this marriage, as I like to think of it, with a partner of the importance of Marchesini Group, consists of both our clientele and our typical Lombardy know-how, which proved particularly important during the pandemic years, when we were able to meet the high level of demand for technologies for packaging Covid vaccines and other biological products.