6
THE HISTORY
With nearly a century of experience
behind them and a new experimental
phase on the horizon: as the Zucchet-
ti brand nears its 100th birthday, it
strengthens its history and institutional
identity by renewing and sharpening its
design direction and image. Inside the
new Zucchetti Group, the Zucchetti and
Kos brands will be distinct yet comple-
mentary—continuing to operate with
decision, character and quality in the
world of bathrooms and wellness, while
increasing the diversity of languages
and forming new collaborations with the
design field.
Zucchetti’s story first begins back in
1929, with a small foundry in Valduggia
(Piedmont) set up by Alfredo Zucchetti.
Today the Zucchetti Group is led by the
third generation, Elena and Carlo, with
cousins Marco and Paolo Zucchetti. The
group consists of 2 factories, covering
a total surface of about 35,000 square
metres, employing 200 people and pro-
ducing 600.000 articles every year.
The basic values of Zucchetti have
always been innovation, design, and
quality: the essential cornerstones that
have guided the firm throughout its
history. After an early phase manufac-
turing industrial valves and fittings, in
1950 the factory is converted to produce
chrome sanitary taps.
In the early 1950s the firm brings in
Mario and Luciano Zucchetti, Alfredo’s
sons. Mario, president and enlight-
ened entrepreneur goes on to lead the
company for nearly fifty years. He steers
the company towards, technological and
commercial advancement and major
production development: he completes
the large new headquarters in Gozzano
(Novara) which he equips with advanced
manufacturing facilities, he exhibits the
brand at the Milan trade fair and then,
one by one, at all the other most impor-
tant international trade fairs. Mario also
opens the first Zucchetti export office, to
conquer international markets engaged
in the post-war reconstruction. The first
significant overseas contracts come in
1958: Canada and Australia (among the
others) become important new markets
for the firm. In 1970 is founded the
second company of the Group, Zucchetti
Mario S.p.A., specialized in hot forging of
brass and other metal alloys. While Omez
S.p.A. dedicated to moulding of plastics,
is established in 1983.
The seventies see the company start
its own path in the world of design.
Mario Zucchetti strongly believed in
the importance of the design image of
any product, as a synthesis of innova-
tive technical and aesthetic values. He
decides to call in Studio Nizzoli for the
first single-lever mixer produced in Italy.
In the eighties, Zucchetti enters the
world of communication, both on tel-
evision and in the press, with the aim
of building a strong, recognised brand.
The company has never abandoned this
course because it is fully aware of the
importance of conveying its values and
excellence through several communica-
tion channels.
With the turn of the century, the
bathroom moves centre-stage, reflecting
changes in society and culture as taste
evolves in line with consumer sensitivity
and the bathroom becomes the “bathing
room”. Attentive to changing sociological
and man-made aspects, Zucchetti is one
of the first to believe in investments in
increasingly more innovative projects,
meeting the demands of a public looking
for desirable experiences rather than
necessary objects. In 2004 the company
decides to avail of the strategic con-
sultancy services of Ludovica+Roberto
Palomba, new art directors of the brand.
2007 sees the birth of the project for a
complete bathroom proposal, following
the acquisition of Kos, a brand associ-
ated with the best production of design
bathtubs and shower cabins. A bath-
room-world that shifts from a merely
functionality level to one of sensation
and physical seduction, giving rise to one
of the most interesting, eclectic design
realities linked to the bathroom sector.
2019 marks a new turning point with the
definition of Zucchetti Group and the new
art direction by Matteo Fiorini Studio.
The group is formed to represent in-
stitutionally and join the two Zucchetti
and Kos brands, with the precise intent
to enhance its specificity, pushing their
complementarity and difference.
