Rinieri, a success story
Last July, the Romagna-based company Rinieri (headquartered in Forlì), which manufactures soil working equipment and machinery for vineyards and orchards, completed the acquisition of Argnani & Monti, a company based in Bertinoro (Forlì Cesena) and specialised in the loader, backhoe, dozer, salt spreader and snowplough segments. Mondo Macchina met up with the owner of the Forlì company, Carlo Rinieri, to take stock of the joint journey over the last nine months.
The acquisition of Argnani & Monti by Rinieri can be seen as the culmination of a partnership that the two companies started three years ago…
The agreement signed in 2018 had given rise to a strengthened partnership that had allowed Argnani&Monti's business to be relaunched after a period of difficulty. Last July, we decided to further enhance these synergies by acquiring control of the Bertinoro-based company. It is a strategic operation because it will allow us to grow together in the Italian and foreign markets.
What advantages do you expect from this acquisition?
For Rinieri, the benefits are measured above all from the point of view of range expansion, which will allow us to be even closer to our customers. Argnani & Monti, on the other hand, will be able to leverage our sales network, present in over 60 countries with more than 400 dealers. Obviously, the two companies will pool all their know-how, technologies and their development and manufacturing chain, optimising the efficiency of their processes. This will significantly reduce their respective production and equipment marketing costs. In short, we intend to share our excellence.
The acquisition of Argnani & Monti sealed a year that saw a number of new developments for Rinieri, starting with the expansion of the production plant, which was enlarged by a good three thousand square metres. In 2020 there was an anniversary...
Last year marked one hundred years of activity. Rinieri took its first steps in the Forlì area back in 1920 when our founder, Olinto Rinieri, set up a mechanical workshop specialising in repairing various types of equipment and machinery. After the Second World War, the company changed its character, moving from a craft business to an industrial one, specialising in agricultural machinery. It was in the early 1990s that we decided to enter the vineyard and orchard equipment segment, which is an important part of our business. We would have liked to celebrate our centenary but the health emergency forced us to postpone it. We hope to see you soon, at Eima 2021, to toast our 100th anniversary together. We miss the direct contact with our customers, the trade exhibitions, the demonstrations.
How has the company grown over its long history?
We currently design and manufacture over 4,000 machines a year. These machines are exported to more than 60 countries, although our business is mainly concentrated in Europe, the United States and Australia, which together account for 75% of our production. The equipment for working the soil under trees, machines that carry out eco-friendly weeding without the use of chemical products, are very popular and we are seeing a considerable increase in these machines.
In this scenario, innovation is the key to being competitive ...
Our first patent dates back to 1922. We can say that Rinieri was born with a strong ability to innovate, and this ability still distinguishes its way of doing business today. This is also demonstrated by the prestigious recognition we received at the EIMA 2020/2021 Technical Innovation Award with the Easyride automatic inter-row steering system; a technology designed in synergy with the University of Bologna to increase productivity and improve the machine’s ergonomics.
