Negri Bossi Targets The Americas

Milan, Italy-based injection machine maker Negri Bossi is increasing its offshore presence. It will begin production in Brazil next year, and a major U.S. marketing effort is underway.

Negri Bossi pulled out of the North American market in the early 1990s, when it was part of John Brown. Now, after several ownership changes – it is now owned by Sacmi, Imola, Italy, which makes equipment for metal and plastics bottle closures – and two years after establishing Negri Bossi Inc., in Mississauga, on, Canada, the company has launched Negri Bossi USA Inc., with a 1000-m2 building in Newark, de. Liam Burns, formerly of Sandretto USA, will serve as branch manager. Commercial manager Bill Duff was previously with HPM. The Mississauga office, originally set up to handle North American sales, will now cover Canada only.

Negri Bossi Inc. commercial director Larry Pascucci surprised many when he reserved a prime, 7500-ft2 (700-m2) exhibit space for Sacmi and Negri Bossi for the NPE this June in Chicago. The booth will largely be filled with the company’s Elma electric machines that were introduced at K 2001 in Düsseldorf.

Negri Bossi is developing two hydraulic machines for production in Brazil. With models ranging from 2100 to 5300 kN (236 to 595 tons), the machines will use locally-sourced components and will be virtually identical to the company’s Canbio models. They will go into production at the beginning of 2004, at an existing Sacmi plant in São Paulo.

Meanwhile, Milan-based international sales director Massimo Colombo says Negri Bossi has “increased dramatically” its market share in the U.K., where it is now the market leader. It also is a leader in Spain. “It proves that where there is little or no local [suppliers], we have no problem competing [with German and Austrian suppliers],” he notes. The U.K. has no domestic producers of mainstream injection machines, and Spain has only one — Mateu y Solé, in Barcelona — after Margarit closed at the beginning of the year.