Injection machine maker is ready to exit special administration

Turin-based Sandretto Industrie is on the market. The company, which once claimed top slot in the Italian injection moulding machine rankings, was put into special administration in 2006 – under which it receives state aid and is run by government-appointed commissars – after its American owner Taylor’s International declared it insolvent. Taylor’s, which also owns HPM, the US producer of injection and extrusion equipment, had owned Sandretto for little more than a year. It bought the company from Cannon, the polyurethanes technology specialist, in early 2005.

Sandretto is currently headed by a lawyer, Piercarlo Castagnetti. He has been responsible for putting into operation a government-approved industrial plan to prepare it for re-launch as an independent concern. The company’s original headquarters in Collegno, on the outskirts of Turin, have been closed, with production now concentrated in Grugliasco and Pont Canavese. The product range has also been rationalised: Metalmeccanica high speed machines for packaging have been replaced by Sandretto HP Fast machines, for example. There are now 345 employees on the books, with around 200 currently actively employed. Turnover is understood to be around €20 million.

“We are not yet running at full power, but our budget is in line with the program approved by the government,” Castagnetti told PRW.com. “What we now need is a new industrial owner to properly relaunch the company.” Expressions of interest need to be in by the end of this week, while the deadline for actual offers expires at the end of September. “We have already received enquiries, from Italy and from abroad,” said Castagnetti.