A new Made in Italy mechanical company is joining Marchesini Group, a Bologna-based multinational that specialises in the production of industrial lines for pharmaceutical packaging, including Covid-19 vaccines, and cosmetic products. The company, Dott. Bonapace, based in Cusano Milanino (Milan), manufactures laboratory machines used for Research and Development and small industrial production of consumables.
Formerly a historic Lombardy-based pharmacy founded in 1872 and then a small manufacturer of machinery for galenic products, Dott. Bonapace was founded in 1946. Over the following decades, three generations of the Bonapace family helped transform the founder’s dream into a pharmaceutical company capable of meeting the needs of over 5,000 customers worldwide, including ministries of health and state-owned enterprises in many countries. This success story “from the bottom up” reflects the passion and dedication of Marchesini Group, which started out in a garage in Pianoro (Bologna) and over the course of 45 years has become one of the world’s leading players in the packaging business, with 2,000 employees and a turnover of 430 million euros.
With this move, Marchesini Group is acquiring 70% of the shares in Dott. Bonapace and expanding its already extensive machine park with new technologies that handle special products such as suppositories and capsules.
“We have made a number of important acquisitions in recent years, but Dott. Bonapace is our first venture into the laboratory machinery market” commented Marchesini Group CEO Pietro Cassani. “Entering this new segment - as was the case for the high-level software segment - will allow us to further diversify our portfolio of mechanical companies and better manage the supply chain during this current period of recovery”.
Flavio Gallocchio, marketing manager at Dott. Bonapace, remarked: “My partner Simone Berto and I are proud to inform customers, suppliers and employees that our company has now become part of the prestigious Marchesini Group. We are therefore celebrating our 75th year in business together, confident that this collaboration will once again showcase Italian excellence worldwide”.
The acquisition will have an immediate highlight: the attendance of Marchesini Group and Dott. Bonapace at CPhI Worldwide, in Milan from 9 to 11 November, dates that will mark the great return of international trade fairs devoted to pharmaceutical technologies. For the occasion, Marchesini Group will be exhibiting a BL-A418 CW Print&Check machine, a solution designed to meet the needs of pharmaceutical product tracking for anti-counterfeiting purposes.