Ansaldo

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This article is concerned with the Italian Ansaldo company, not the car of the same name.


Ansaldo was one of Italy's oldest and most important mechanical companies, existing for 140 years from 1853 to 1993.


History

From foundation to World War I

Founded in 1853 as "Gio. Ansaldo & C." S.A.S. by renowned players in the Genoese business world, such as Giovanni Ansaldo, Raffaele Rubattino, Giacomo Filippo Penco and Carlo Bombrini. Until the end of the 19th century, the company focused on manufacturing and repairing railway components, quickly becoming a 10,000-worker company with seven factories, and starting to expand into sectors such as shipbuilding and mechanical works in general. In 1904, Ansaldo was bought by Ferdinando Maria Perrone, who, along with his sons Mario and Pio, bound the name of the Perrone family to the history of the company. Over the next twenty years, he aimed at making Ansaldo fully independent both in the siderurgic field and in the ironworks and weapon-making areas, thanks to strong vertical integration and to World War I. In 1914 the company was worth 30 millions of lire, which snowballed to 500 millions in 1918, when Ansaldo employed 80,000 workers, has dozens of factories and controls companies such as A. Cerpelli & C., Banca industriale Italiana, [[[Cantieri Officine Savoia]], Dinamite Nobel, Gio.Fossati & C., Lloyd Italico, Nazionale di Navigazione, Pompilio, Società Idroelettrica Negri, and Transatlantica Italiana.

Fascism and World War II

Following a financial crisis and problems in reconverting factories after the end of World War I, the Perrone family abandoned the company in 1921, and the Banca d'Italia led a consortium to save it from bankruptcy. Company strategies were drastically sized down, and during the 1902s, even if electro-mechanical productions grew significantly, Ansaldo found itself in such dire difficulties that it finally entered the control of the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI), under which the company found new life and growth, partly thanks to the new war effort during fascism. The main figure in this rebirth, the engineer Agostino Rocca, reconfigured the structure and organisation of the company during his tenure as CEO from 1935 to the end of World War II. War contracts indeed lead to a significant growth: Ansaldo had 22,000 employees in 1939, and 35,000 in 1943.

After World War II

After the end of World War II, conversion to a non-bellic production again caused problems to the company. In 1948, IRI entrusted the company to Finmeccanica, which operated several reorganisation measures during the 1950s and 1960s, such as the relinquishing of all shipbuilding activities to Italcantieri of Trieste in 1966. From that year, Finmeccanica further englobed Ansaldo within its activities, and in 1980 they formed Italy's larges thermo-electric group. In 1993, Ansaldo ceased to exist as an independent entity, having been completely absorbed by Finmeccanica.


What remains of Ansaldo today

Some companies controlled by Finmeccanica still bear the Ansaldo family name. These include:


History

Official websites

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