Vendors: Ceramica Fondovalle

In 1957, in Marano sul Panaro, a group of businessmen and aristocrats from Modena set up Ceramica Fondovalle. The ceramics firm, positioned outside the Sassuolo district both in terms of geographic location and corporate strategy, has always strived to be a style leader, rather than a follower. Situated just below the point of confluence of the rivers Leo (from Sestola) and Scoltenna (from Riolunato), which become the Panaro, the Fondovalle plant has been located on the western bank for almost fifty years.

During 1962 the company embarked on production of red stoneware floor and wall tiles in two sizes: 7.5x15 cm and 15x15xcm, an extremely popular product which, in the booming economic climate, led to Fondovalle orienting its marketing towards the building-site industry and the lower end of the residential building industry.

From the seventies through to the beginning of the nineties, the company gradually converted its production to glazed white paste products in the conventional 10x20cm format.

In the course of 1991, Fondovalle received a shake-up in the form of top management changes and the consequent transfers of company stock. Following this transformation, the company received an injection of funds designed to revamp plant technology. Thanks to this renewed production potential, the company steered its ranges towards single-fired white-paste glazed tiles in new sizes: 22x22cm, 22x33cm and 11x22 cm.

Production reached maturity in 1994, with the introduction of the single-fired, frost-resistant 34x34cm floor tiles, available in semigloss, matt and rustic versions.

The complete restructuring of the systems, in 1996, involved the modernisation of the entire production plant in Marano sul Panaro to accommodate the glazed porcelain production.

During 2003 the company enhanced the production line with the addition of the Twin Press: innovative ceramics technology for the production of homogenous whole-body slabs formed by double pressing. Thanks to this system, the company can develop top-of-the-range products, whose high-tech features are as attractive as their appearance, which are superior to all the others on the market. In the same year, to exploit this remarkable strategic investment to the full, a container brand was created: Bi+fusion. A registered mark owned by Fondovalle, it combines all the research and development projects carried out employing this technology. Nowadays Fondovalle has three establishments: a production unit in Marano sul Panaro, the main and sales offices in Torre Maina, Maranello, and a logistics base in Ubersetto, Formigine.

The turning point for the company style terms came in 2004, the year in which the Bi+fusion project bore its first fruits, meeting with general approval. These important goals have propelled the company towards adopting, in the course of 2005, a new commercial strategy, which is no longer product-driven, but oriented instead towards image and communication-based product enhancement obtained by means of an articulated marketing plan.