Maccaferri’s engineering culture can be traced back to our roots in the year 1550 in Italy, when a young man named Johannes was apprenticed to an ironworker in Sacerno, Emilia Romagna. He soon acquired the nickname 'Maccaferri'; literally 'He who strikes iron'. The foundry in which he worked made wrought iron products for the surrounding principalities. These principalities would eventually combine to form the country we now know as Italy.
From these humble beginnings, the company grew over the centuries until in 1886, Maccaferri made the first wire products. The wire was hand woven into fences and a brand new 'gabion'. Indeed Maccaferri is credited with being the inventor of the modern gabions, with a patent granted to Maccaferri in the late 1890s. The first gabion retaining structure was built in 1893 to retain the river banks of the River Reno at Caselecchio. It took 650 workers, 34 days to install the 2,900 gabions! It still functions to this day!
Later that year, a flatter 'gabion mattress' was fabricated for soil erosion control on the River Reno. The term Reno Mattress was born and remains a Maccaferri trademark to this day.
Since these innovative beginnings, Maccaferri has continued to grow from strength to strength. The Maccaferri Industrial Group remains a family owned industrial conglomerate with interests in food, construction, power generation, finance and construction materials manufacture and distribution. We have over 20 factories spanning the globe, from China to Brazil and from America to Jakarta.
Our continued growth is still based upon the same philosophy - to offer high quality, durable and environmentally sensitive solutions. Our heritage has helped us gain a profound understanding of our environment which is reflected in the solutions we offer our clients.
Reassurance...
As the worldwide leader in the gabion and Reno mattress market, it is our priority to ensure that our clients are entirely satisfied with our products and services. This philosophy now embraces our entire range of solutions and products. Evidence of our commitment is that if our solutions are not appropriate for your particular situation, we will tell you so. It is not in our long term interest to force a product or solution onto your project that may be inappropriate. It is our aim to forge long lasting relationships, built upon mutual understanding, trust and professionalism.
Maccaferri in the UK…
Registered in England in 1956 the company, then known as River & Sea Gabions Ltd, operated from offices in Oxford Street, London and serviced the UK and most of the British Commonwealth territories. Following a group reorganisation in 1986 the company then concentrated on the UK market and in 1995 moved its head office to Oxford, taking the identity of its Italian parent, Maccaferri, and acquired a new managing director Richard Greenford. Richard had previously managed Maccaferri's interests in Southeast Asia and Australia. In 2006, a new Managing Director, Graham Marshall joined Maccaferri UK. Graham previously managed Maccaferri’s interests in Asia and Africa and brings a wealth of strategic and sales experience.
Maccaferri now offers environmentally engineered solutions in Retaining Structures, Erosion Protection, Slope Reinforcement, Pavement Reinforcement, and Basal Platforms throughout the UK and Ireland.
Construction…
Our sister company Maccaferri Construction Ltd offers high quality construction of our solutions within Great Britain.
