History of Besa

 

Since 1946 solutions on safety valves

The Foundation

1946, here we go...

It was 1946, when engineers Beltrami and Santangelo decided to set up a company dedicated to the resale of industrial taps and fittings.
BESA, whose name is the union of the first letters of the founders' surnames, was founded.
The following year, in 1947, one of the founders left the company and the shares were taken over entirely by Ing. Antonio Santangelo.

Post-war reconstruction

Growth in the 50s

In the early 1950s, Besa began to specialise in safety valves, starting a production on Italian soil, purchasing a new building at Via Donatello 31, in Milan, strategically close to the ISPESL offices (nowadays INAIL), a choice also made at the time by several Milanese valve manufacturers.
At that time, Germany was exporting its industrial products all over the world and Besa made an agreement to represent Johannes Erhard H. Waldenmaier Erben on the Italian market. On the left there is a photo taken in April 1959 during the 37th Milan Trade Fair.

The example of a man devoted to his work

The story of Costantino

In 1951, Costantino was 14 years old when his mother suggested him to approach Mr. Santangelo, while he was leaving his house, to ask for a job. Costantino took his bike and stared to run after the engineer's car.
But following a car on a bike through Milan's streets was not easy and the young man finally managed to catch up with him only when the engineer arrived at the office.
Breathless from the chase, the teenager made his request. Touched and honoured by the endurance of the young boy, Mr. Santangelo decided to hire him as a reward. That was his first day at work and the last has not arrived yet. Costantino now is over 80 years old and he is still working as a member of our staff. Thanks Costantino to inspire us.

Second generation

The entrepreneur girl

In 1987, Mr. Santangelo's daughter, Rosa, joined the company at the tender age of 18, working alongside her elderly and ailing father. In 1991, Mr. Santangelo passed away and Rosa, still very young, began to run the company alone, supported by valuable collaborators.
In that days, a young woman as a head of an industrial company was not an ordinary fact. Some newspapers were interested by her story and asked her for interviews. Rosa declined all the requests, preferring to continue working in silence and successfully manage her father's work.

The change

The company's structuring

In 1993, Rosa was joined by her husband Fabio.
A deep transformation of the corporate structure begins.
Separate departments were defined: administration, technical, commercial and production, where each has its own manager.
The company logo has been modernised, the first numerically controlled production machines have been purchased and the management software has been upgraded to a more performant one.
Besa started again to partecipate in international trade fairs.
In these years Internet started to diffuse in Europe and Besa, trusting in this new technology, published his first website in 1998.

Check our website history
The move

Moving out of town

In 2005, was necessary to move into a larger building on the outskirts of East Milan. Via delle Industrie Nord, 1/A in Settala (MI) became the new Besa headquarter, still existing nowadays.

Consolidation

The expansion

Besa acquired "Nuova Coi", a small competitor, and in 2008 did a corporate reorganization and changed its name and denomination into "Coi Technology s.r.l.".
Now it is an established company specialized in safety valve for liquefied gas sector and for the construction of valves in special materials.
In the following years, turnover increased, foreign sales were established, and the entire production machinery was modernised.

Coi Technology website
Third generation

The story continues

In the 2020s, Andrea and Alessandro completed their studies and entered the family business with a lot of energy and many innovative ideas for the future. Encouraging the use of high-performance automation and improving specific in-house software.