Nello Mazzaferro arrived in Brazil in 1949, coming from a Italy destroyed by war. He founded a company that bears his name and earns more BRL 100 million per year.
The Mazzaferro group was featured in an extensive 2017 article in the magazine FORBES Brazil, which classified it as one of the companies “little notables” Brazilians. The nickname fits like a glove, as the company is not a multinational conglomerate, but it is a giant in its own right. market niche.
Mazzaferro is the largest Brazilian producer of fishing lines, and one of the largest in the world. And it operates in other segments related to plastic transformation, including technical monofilaments for medical industry.
We made this small presentation of the company, as it is less known to the general public. But let's go to beginning of the story, as we usually tell it every Sunday to the readers of the column Italian Heritage.
Journey towards a dream
It all started when the young Italian Nello Mazzaferro, born in December 26, 1925 in the small town of San Elpídio a Maré, in the province of Fermo, region of Brands, the Italy, left his family, his home and everything he knew until then and decided to leave for Brazil.
The year was 1949, when he arrived in the city of São Paulo and made friends with Italians and people of various other nationalities, which directly contradicted the principles preached by Mussolini in Italy. In love with the new lifestyle in Brazil, Nello returned to Italy and looked for his brother Mario.
Back in Brazil, the brothers started working in maintenance and rewinding of electric motors in a factory Sao Caetano do Sul. Once a year, they went to Italy to visit relatives and brought goods to sell with profits, thus paying for the trips.
In search of new opportunities, they met the Italian Giovanni Toschi, who advised them to bring nylon fishing lines to sell in Brazil, as the product was scarce in the country. They returned to Europe, bought a large quantity of the material and had great sales success.
Mazzaferro's idea begins to grow
In 1953, they met the radio technician Luigi Pier, who joined to participate in the venture. He invented a mechanical way of winding wires into smaller spools. The company was formed by in, Mario, Luigi e Massimo Ballardini, who came to Brazil in 1954 to join the group.
At the time, they filled suitcases with spools and sold them in stores. Everything they earned went back into the small company, which was born in house garage where they lived, in Vila Mariana. They separated just enough to feed themselves, as the priority was feed the dream of one day having a big company.
The wires were imported, rolled up on spools in the garage and sold in stores through the city of São Paulo. Thus, the company began to grow Irmãos Mazzaferro & Cia Ltda.
In the following years, they purchased a extruder, equipment to transform plastic into threads, and started manufacturing their own product. At the time, they received the incentive from the retailer network with whom they already had a business relationship, such as Hunting and Fishing House, Winchester House e Anchor House, among others.láudio Ma
Own production and factory
However, they ended up bumping into difficulties created by suppliers, who did everything they could to hide the manufacturing technology. But from that moment on, the success was inevitable and young entrepreneurs began to look for land to house production, as demand would increase a lot.
In 1963 the first factory was opened at Km 18 of Via Anchieta. In this unit, Mazzaferro put into practice all possible technologies, which resulted from the enormous advances in plastics transformation technology from the end of the decade of 1960.
By mastering the principle of polymer manufacturing, the company stopped being yarn traders to take on a leading role in raw material manufacturing e pioneer in the nylon market.
Still in the 1960s, Mazzaferro registered the name The grill, connected to an extensive line of brand yarns. In the 1970s, the company modernized production of monofilaments and multifilaments, which allowed entry into the braided ropes and cables and cords.
New technologies drive Mazzaferro
In 1971, a large reactor for production of homopolymers and copolymers, together with a bifrontal line of monofilament extrusion, paving the way for the manufacture of more sophisticated products quality higher added value.
In 1973, the launch of the revolutionary Trilon fishing line became a milestone in monofilament productionBy embedded high technology to the product and raw material sophistication developed internally, becoming the current Mazzaferro Tecnopolímetos Ltda.
During that same period, the company began producing wires for tires, technical screens, conveyor belts, zippers, Velcro e sewing for producers who wanted independence from importing inputs.
In the 1990s, the company decided to divide its activities into three different business units. They were born to Mazzaferro Tecnopolímeros Ltda, Mazzaferro Fishing Products Ltd and Mazzaferro Fibras Sintéticas Ltda. Mazzaferro Monofilamentos Técnicos Ltda It had been operating autonomously since 1984.
Mazzaferro's tribute and farewell
The 1990s also marked the entry into the executive ranks of second generation of the founders. Nello's sons, Mário, Luigi and Massimo began to get involved in company day-to-day and they are still in the group today.
In 2005, Nello Mazzaferro was honored by São Paulo City Council with the title of Citizen of São Paulo. “Always thank God for the blessings and luck, and this country for the opportunities. Always try to work more and better and continue being what they already are: honorable and persistent. Never give up, never give up. Fight, always fight, and be grateful“, he declared at the time.
The year 2011 was marked by death of Nello Mazzaferro, aged 85, leaving his wife Benita Del Vivo Mazzaferro and the children Giovanni, Maurizio, Claudio e Cristina.
Revenue and diversification
In 2016, the company reached R$100 million in revenue, with the fishing area responsible for 70% of this performance. In this segment, there is only one company that competes with Mazzaferro, which is in the United States.
The strong point of exports is lines for sport fishing. The markets range from Argentina to Mexico, but the company has also managed to enter regions such as the United States and Europe.
In the company's housewares is the production of items such as brooms and brushes. In the area of technical monofilaments, since bristles for oral hygiene to invisible threads for sewing.
In the area of medical industry, the company produces monofilaments for surgical mesh and para suture, for example. These products are exported to more than 40 countries, accordingly Cláudio Mazzaferro, current CEO of the company.
In the cosmetics sector, the company produces displays e wick cards for demonstration of hair coloring. These products are exported to countries such as Morocco, Egypt e Jordania.
Numbers that reflect a life
The group has two factories in Greater São Paulo and a distribution center in Manaus, responsible for products manufactured in China – partnership started in 1994. Serves more than 2.500 customers e exports to more than 70 countries our five continents,.
They are numbers of a company started in 1953 on the initiative of another immigrant Italian who arrived in Brazil no financial resources, but with a lot willingness to work and see your dreams turn into reality.
By Roberto Schiavon/Italianism
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