Early History
Candy Group is an Italian privately-owned (the Fumagalli family) multi-brand group of companies, among the world leaders in the household appliance industry: washing machines, dishwashers, dryers, refrigerators, freezers, cookers and oven, both built-in and free-standing. Its personnel count reached 7,000-plus at year’s end 2008, of whom about 80% are outside Italy.
Headquarters are in Brugherio, near Milano (Italy). Branch offices and fully owned subsidiaries are 40 worldwide. Manufacturing sites are in Italy, France, Spain, Czech Republic, Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Uzbekistan.
The Group operates through two international brands, Candy and Hoover, and the national ones: Rosières, Iberna, Jinling, Otsein, Süsler, Vyatka, Zerowatt, Hoover-Helkama, Hoover-Grepa . Back in 1945, the Eden Fumagalli Mechanical Workshop in Monza (a town north of Milan), manufacturers of precision machine instruments, designed the Model 50, the first all-Italian washing machine, which was launched officially at the Milan Trade Fair in 1946. In that same year, the Candy company was established out of the initial family business.
Right from the start, Candy washing machines became the protagonist of the development of Italian appliance market, expanding soon to the whole of Europe.
Innovation has always been the keyword at Candy: In the Sixties, the Automatic washing machine was launched. It was the first fully automatic one, designed and made in Italy on a new platform, which became the global standard for the product.
In 1966, the company entered product diversification presenting Stipomatic, an automatic dishwasher with two compartments. At the same time, the Superautomatic washing machine was launched. These two innovative products paved the way to the expansion of appliances into Italian families.
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