THE COOPERATIVA CERAMICA d’IMOLA

Tile & Stone Works’ premier product line of imported Italian porcelain tile is the manufacturer Cooperativa d’Imola or simply Imola. Imola is an employee owned tile manufacturing company located in the town of Imola, Italy near the Italian tile epicenter of Bologna, Italy. Bologna is home of the ceramic tile industry’s largest and most prestigious trade show known as Cersaie or the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings. Imola’s five brand names include Arkim Ceramica, La Faenza Ceramica, Monceram Ceramica, Leonardo Ceramica, and Omega Ceramica. This is an industry leading group popular with the architect and design community. Their product lines include mid to high end glazed and unglazed porcelain wall and floor tile, glazed ceramic tile, and ceramic, porcelain, and natural stone mosaics and decorative accents suitable from residential up to heavy commercial applications. Tile & Stone Works imports and inventories some of Imola’s product lines while also promoting and distributing other products stocked at their US warehouse located in Miami, Florida.

Commercial, Industrial, and Mid- to High-end Residential Porcelain Tile

The Cooperative d’ Imola is Tile & Stone Work’s premier manufacturer of imported Italian made porcelain tile. Their seven brand names all cater to specific needs in each market segment. Arkim Ceramica and Leonardo Ceramic focus is on unglazed through bodied porcelain tile and pavers suitable for the harshest and most demanding conditions and performance. They deliver these products with state of the art technology and industry leading fashion. Imola Ceramica, La Faenza Ceramica, Omega Ceramica, and Monoceram Ceramica focus is glazed porcelain wall and floor tile. Utilizing the latest inkjet glazing techniques this group’s products round out the Cooperativa’ d’ Imola’s product offering giving Tile & Stone Works and our clients a one stop shop for the best of what the Italian tile makers have to offer.

ART, INDUSTRY, PEOPLE: THE GROUP STRENGTH

Art and Industry. Two cores fused in one single production concern. The Cooperativa Ceramica d’Imola’s international success grew out of this exclusive mix. A project synergy which, since our participation at the 1884 National Exhibition in Turin, has been at the constant service of today’s market leader Group – symbol of Made in Italy worldwide – working closely with professionals, distributors and end users to supply solutions interpreting and anticipating new trends in ceramic design and technology: customized services, solutions designed to meet the sales partners needs in design and installation of a wide range of products and brands.

A GROUP EQUIPPED TO COMPETE AT TOP LEVELS ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE

A Group equipped to compete at top levels on the international scene: 4 brand names on the market – Imola Ceramica, LaFaenza Ceramica, Leonardo Ceramica and Clip Tile – 7 production sites with more than 2.000 employees, a production capacity of around 31.000.000 sq. m. for residential and non-residential buildings, a consolidated turnover that exceeds 380.000.000 Euros and export levels reaching 70% of the Group’s industrial tile production. Figures that underscore a constant commitment to achieving increasingly higher quality standards: technological innovation and design research are the Company’s mission and priority, confirmed by investments of more than 130.000.000 Euros in the three year period 2006/2008.

Figures and results not far removed from the Group’s deep roots in the Imola territory with its 135 years of history and achievements. What backs up the strength of figures is the wealth of personnel, of the values and experience they are able to transmit. Art and Industry then, but also Industry and Human Values, have always been the Group’s strongpoint: the exclusive ingredients which fascinated and still fascinate everyone who comes into contact with us; resources which Cooperativa Ceramica d’Imola continues to believe in and acknowledge after 135 years - values to invest in for the achievement of future industrial priorities.

135 YEARS LIVED WITH ENTHUSIASM

The history of a passion. Of a great desire for progress: economic, productive and human. The history of the Cooperativa Ceramica d’Imola, Italy’s oldest Work and Production Cooperative, began with these noble principles . More than a century of ceramics tradition, characterised by the meeting of history and culture and culminating in 1874 with the passage to his employees – by Giuseppe Bucci – of the latter’s tableware and majolica factory as a contribution to the “progress of industry and economic improvement of the workers”. The same passion led, towards the end of the 19th century, to the opening of the Artistic Section and the Imola company’s official debut on the international market. This was a result of participation at the Turin Exhibition, at the behest of Artistic Director Gaetano Lodi. Material quality, the freshness of the colours and decorations, immediately became the trademark of a firm which entered the 20th century as a front line player, beginning the production of tiles as its primary activity. Historic avant-gardes, new aesthetic, craft and technological requirements were thus integrated to enrich the product range, leading to an inevitable extension of the premises: a late 19th century glassworks was converted, by means of a fine architectural rehabilitation project, into new ceramic production premises. It is still an example of industrial archaeology and currently houses the Museum, the Exhibition Hall and the Workshop.

SAFEGUARDING AND PROMOTING WORK AND PROGRESS AS THE FUNDAMENTAL HERITAGE OF THE INDIVIDUAL

The King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III visited the Cooperativa Ceramica d’Imola, bearing witness – as many other public and art world figures would – to the Imola company’s nationwide fame, a synonym over the following decades for artistic sensitivity masterfully blended with innovative entrepreneurial spirit. A spirit that distinguished the milestones passed from the early 90’s onwards, a period marked by other significant developments: the opening of new headquarters, blending tradition and innovation, and the acquisition of two new companies (I.C.F. in 1991 and Leonardo 1502 in 1993). With the backup of a constantly increasing technological capacity Cooperativa Ceramica d’Imola reached the sector’s production peaks in the 2000’s, meeting the new needs of foreign markets and becoming, in very few years, an international reference point in high quality innovative ceramics: from traditional double-fired Cooperativa Ceramica d’Imola broadened its range to take in single fired and rapid double-fired, glazed porcelain Grès and the most modern full thickness Gres porcelain, right down to special pieces, decoration and third firing. Today new sophisticated solutions for the building industry are designed and produced on the premises, such as large sizes, but also solutions for the domestic, urban and industrial sectors. Innovative digital printing techniques (e.g. Colour Definition System) have been patented and applied. Environmental regulations are observed through certified quality management systems and new ecological processes are set up. And still today, when it has become one of the sector’s great international Groups – the actual signature of the most sophisticated Made in Italy worldwide – Cooperativa Ceramica d’Imola draws inspiration from the same passion and the same philosophy: safeguarding and promoting work and progress as the fundamental heritage of the individual.