Company
From the past,
the future
is born
What we were has written what we are today.
A hundred and forty years, four generations, one common thread: the ability to look at a material and see not what it is, but what it can become.
“I have never seen a piece of matter as a limitation, but as a promise. Ingenuity does not lie in following the form, but in giving it a future that does not yet exist.”
From the book “Attraverso le epoche” · 140 years of Macchi Serafino
1885
The origins
140
Years of history
4
Generations
The 140th anniversary film
Discover our history
Two minutes inside material becoming form: a story in pictures of where we come from and where we are heading.
About us · Through the years
Macchi Serafino through the ages
A hundred and forty years in five chapters. Each era remains, while the next settles on top of it, like knowledge building up from one generation to the next.
1885 · The origins
The old workshop
It all began in 1885, with a family living and working around the same courtyard. Small spaces, skilled hands, carefully made objects: handles, walking sticks and pipe mouthpieces, in the heart of what is still one of the world’s most important pipe-making districts.
1903 — 1920s · Energy
From the river to the current
First the mills along the river, then, in the 1920s, the arrival of electricity, which Serafino helped to bring in himself. Every technological leap has always been a first idea of the future.
1940 · Resistance
War and restart
Through the dark years of the war the company held on, then started again. This is where continuity became a value before it was a choice: the thread that never breaks, era after era.
1970s · The turning point
Franco Macchi’s vision
Franco Macchi looked at machines that had stood still since the early twentieth century and saw not what they had been, but what they could have become. That vision gave rise to today’s Macchi Serafino.
1980s – 2000 · The material
The arrival of acrylic (PMMA)
After horn and briar came acrylic (PMMA): “smooth, glossy, versatile. A prelude to the future.” Craft experience became the lens for reading the new — lasers, thermoforming, the first robotic machining centres.
Our values
The values that guide us
1
Listening
Every project begins with a genuine conversation. Before working the material, we listen to the idea of those who imagine it.
2
Knowledge
Knowledge in the hands: a technical expertise built over time and passed down from generation to generation, piece by piece.
3
Precision
Every millimetre counts. Tight tolerances and dimensional control are not a process: they are our history.
4
Experience
One hundred and forty years of worked material: yesterday’s material expertise is the lens through which we read today’s.
5
Innovation
Technology in service of creativity, never an end in itself. Design the new, don’t chase it.
6
Care
The human touch on every piece. Behind the most advanced machines, the craftsman’s hand remains, attentive to every finish.
Our area
In the district the world recognises
We are based in Oggiona con Santo Stefano, in the heart of what is still one of the most important districts for mechanical and plastics processing worldwide.
This is where specialist skills in finishing and polishing grew up, around products that demand minimal tolerances. Today we put that know-how at the service of every industry: from design to lighting, from medical to technical components.
Oggiona con Santo Stefano – Varese, Italy
Family continuity
The fourth generation
Franco’s daughters, Virginia and Sofia Macchi, are not just heirs: they are new interpreters of a legacy that keeps changing shape.
Sofia Macchi
Administration and control
With a degree in Economics from the Università Cattolica, she gained experience in management control and supply chain within major multinational organisations. Since 2012 she has been part of Macchi, where she leads process optimisation and flow management in support of production.
Virginia Macchi
Research and development
She comes from the Politecnico and brings a fresh perspective to acrylic (PMMA): colour, movement, visual sensitivity. In the company, form is never just aesthetics: it is function, identity, a story taking shape.
Do you have a project
to develop?
A hundred and forty years of know-how, at the service of your idea.
Tell us what you want to build.