The area of Lake Maggiore, between the nineteenth and the twentieth century, was characterized by the rise of a significant industrial development in the mechanical, food and especially in textile industry. In this positive situation the contribution made by Swiss immigrants in this area was significant and, among them, that one of Enrico Meierhofer, founder of Meierhofer twisting Mill, stood up. Here the main appointments of our history:
1877: Enrico Meierhofer is born in Weiach, Canton of Zurich.
1900: Enrico Meierhofer is called in Selasca (Ghiffa) as Director of the factory Pio Molinari (already owned by Oetiker Spinning Mill), a well known local cotton spinning company. In this factory he introduced improvements and technological innovations experienced in previous positions of responsibility held in motherland (spinning "Reiter & C." of Glattfelden, "Ryhiner & C." of Basilea and "Bebié" of Turgi). He also didn't neglect the human aspect, by building in Susello a comfortable boarding place that will host, for over fifty years, the local workforce and also devoting himself to many philanthropic local activities.
1924: With all the acquired experience Enrico Meierhofer starts on his own, in Susello, a modern factory for the production of twisted cotton yarns, in medium-fine and extra-fine counts. He set up a mill in the location of a former carpenter's place, with the introduction of complementary activities to the twisting operation (singeing and reeling of twisted yarns), quickly creating an important local Company. His efforts were recognized from King Vittorio Emanuele III with the honorary title of "Cavaliere d'Italia". It is the official birth of our company. By the end of 1943, however, as a consequence of the war events and the lack of raw materials, the production was suspended to resume towards the end of 1945.
1946: In this year Emanuele, son of Enrico, joined the company. Suddenly, the next year, Emanuele took the lead of the company, as consequence of the unexpected death of his father. From the early 1950s Emanuele Meierhofer extended several times the factory, for adapting it to the growing production demands, both in terms of volumes and quality of the products required from the market. The maximum attention was constantly dedicated to technological innovations, with a constant relationship of cooperation with suppliers in the development of new machineries and innovative devices for twisting (Hamel before and Savio later) and singeing (Mettler), helping them to achieve significant improvements. In a few years the quality standard of "Ritorcitura Meierhofer" became a benchmark for quality, at European level, in the production of twisted and gassed cotton yarns in the range of fine and extra fine counts. This yarns were used primarily for the production of high-end shirting fabrics.
1978 – 1980: With Enrico Meierhofer junior and the brother Adriano, joining the company, Ritorcitura Meierhofer is now living its third youth, with a push forward into the future of high hopes. The two brothers realized that a lot of customers in the clothing industry were looking for more innovative products that had to meet new needs and new requirements both from a visual as well as tactile prospective. Great importance is therefore placed in the study of new highly performing yarns, merging their own technical know-how to the inventiveness of designers with whom they started a close working relationship.
2000: At the turn of the millennium the production unit was expanded, it nowadays cover about 7,500 square meters, and obsolete equipment replaced with new plants, for twisting, but especially for the singeing and the rewinding operations with electronic clearers. Gradually the structure has been transformed, in order to be able to meet market needs, more and more towards experiencing innovative yarns, both for composition and structure, but always produced in very short times.
2017: Federico Meierhofer, represents the fourth generation of the family to join the company. His task to develop Mtech, the Technical Textile division of Enrico Meierhofer s.r.l. devoted to industrial textile.
2018: Realization of a new production line for the processing of composite materials as well as yarns covering.
Today, the company presents itself as a point of reference in high quality yarns production, for the most demanding segments of the market, from the finest cotton yarns to innovative technical ones.
