MILAN – We would like to share an article that appeared in the Friday, 18th September edition of the newsletter of the Lombard Section of the Cavalieri del Lavoro (Knights of Industry): it is an interview with Maurizio Cimbali, Cimbali Group President, to reflect on a journey marked by success, together with one of the company’s leaders.
“It is unlikely that things will go back to the way they were before. While I hope they will return to normal, they will in any case be different. What we need to do is avoid being passive: we must work to create the conditions for recovery and learn to respond more quickly to change. We also need imagination because we must imagine a different future. We need to do this for those who will come after us.”
This is the message that Cavaliere del Lavoro Maurizio Cimbali conveyed in his interview as part of the weekly 15-minute session
During his interview with the journalist Walter Mariotti, Maurizio Cimbali reflected on the most important steps in the long history of the Cimbali Group, which he heads as President.
With three plants in Italy, one in the US, two branches in Italy, eight branches abroad and a representative office in Dubai, the Cimbali Group has over 700 employees and 70 active patents. Its history is intertwined with the story of a family, as it was Maurizio’s grandfather who started it all when he opened a tiny shop, barely 320 square feet, in Milan. It is also a story of awards – the first being the Compasso d’Oro, which went to the Pitagora machine in 1962, the only coffee machine to ever receive this prestigious award to this day – and a story of ground-breaking milestones, like the foundation of MUMAC in 2012.
“Coffee machines have always been in my life. When I was a boy, every Sunday my father would take me to call on his key customers – these were Milan’s top spots in the 1950s – and the reason for those visits was none other than the coffee machine. That was where I learnt how much customers matter and how important it is to know how to respond to and satisfy the most demanding customers. A lesson that absolutely still applies today.”
Vision and strategy, knowledge of the market and the product and the continuous ability to look to the future: MUMAC is further confirmation
Spanning roughly 20,000 square feet, MUMAC was inaugurated in 2012 to mark the Group’s one hundredth anniversary. Today, it houses the largest collection of Italian-made coffee machines, masterfully blending the past and present with an emphasis on culture, featuring a vast library of resources related to coffee machines, a special area for events and an academy where coffee machine professionals receive ongoing training.
“It wasn’t easy because we came up with the idea in 2009 and we all know how difficult things were at that time. But we wanted to do something that would endure and that would, above all, celebrate the coffee machine and all the Italian producers that have made it so famous around the world,” explained Cavaliere del Lavoro Maurizio Cimbali.
