40 Years at the Heart of Ingredient Handling

1 - 2025 is a very special year for you.

It definitely is! It was 1985 when we started this adventure in Forlì, at the feet of the Appennine mountains where our families trace our origins. First, the Ceccarellis and Milanesis, then, the Montaltis and Riccardis. And now we celebrate our fortieth anniversary since we began the design and manufacture of systems for the storing, transportation and dosing of raw materials. 40 years of ingredient handling, and because our business is ingredients, we are compelled to look at what the ingredients of our story are.

In 2025, our turnover is 41 millions euros, our workforce is 172 people, we worked with 66 countries in the five continents, taking part to more than 20 show trade events the world over. We did more than two thousand deliveries and more than a thousand shipments, with around 350 construction sites including service and revamping, and a thousand missions. Since we began, we have launched around 5000 installations, with an average of 110 exclusive turn-key systems every year.

We are proud of these numbers, but they don’t tell the whole story. Thinking about ingredients, we have decided to use this opportunity to reflect on what made us come this far. I mentioned the families that worked together to develop this company, and that is definitely the first building block: partnership, as the foundation of our work. It’s what we want to celebrate the most: the ability to bring together different visions to create our own unique path, not just among the leadership but with everyone who works with us on every level.  Welcome to the beat is the motto we chose for our anniversary, and it perfectly represents how central relationships are to us.

But it doesn’t stop there. Creativity and innovation, design and production, durability and regeneration: it is by seeing ourselves as a beating heart of technological development that we have grown globally, collaborating with leading brands in the food sector to tell a tale of strength, energy and commitment. Our growth has been horizontal and participatory, based on sharing and spreading a positive impact: a constant beat, which we wish can regenerate and innovate, enhancing people, territories and economies. CEPI’s essence is this: an organization that strives the most to be dynamic, balanced and responsible, to build and not just assemble, to adapt while creating new solutions.

2 - So, how did this technological heartbeat spread from the Appennines to the world?

All our families used to live in the Forlì Apennines, mostly as farmers between the municipalities of Bagno di Romagna and Santa Sofia. After the second world war, the Ceccarellis and the Montaltis emigrated to Belgium to become miners, a background that influenced us to always have an international outlook from inception, with France as the first reference market alongside Italy. The meeting between these four men was special: an engineer, a manufacturer, a food technician and a technical salesman. From the beginning, it led to a plural and democratic approach to governance, and placed technology firmly central role in our work. These two intrinsic, unchanged themes in our mission not only steadily drove our growth but added an irreplaceable value for the users of our installations. We like to think of CEPI not just as a business venture, but an idea factory, where innovation emerges constantly from a deep engagement with each aspect of the customer’s unique processes and the need to develop more and more specialized solutions, leading to an unparalleled technological range in our sector.

And this orientation to partnership trickling down from our leadership means collaboration is natural to us, something we seek both inside and outside our company. It has been seamlessly inherited by he second generation– from Sandra Ceccarelli as CFO, Igor Riccardi as Sales Director, Luca Ceccarelli overseeing R&D, Mattia Riccardi on Logistics and Stefania Montalti on Communications. More ideas, more talent, more synergy at the service of each system we built. All this means flexibility and fast responses to requests for support, and a wide network of local technical partners ready to step at any time. Ultimately, it led to a true and tested working model that is always turn-key and always customer-centered. Now in 2025, we are one of the major bulk-handling providers for the food industry globally, with expertise in the management of all ingredients and all geographical markets, working for some of the most important companies from all sectors of food manufacturing.

Through the years, thanks to this approach, we have built a solid network of commercial partners with the countless collaborators that we have cultivated on the five continents. Strong, common roots paired with a global, interconnected view of the work seeking mutual growth: in a way, it’s history like that of a tree, well anchored to the soil but with branches reaching towards the sky and the future. “Everything started with flour”, is what we often say: our first projects where with local small and middle sized bakeries. And while flour is still one of our unquestioned protagonists, we now build systems for main players of sectors from ice cream to protein bars to pet food, managing decades of complex ingredients at once. The installation as a whole is the most important product rather than any single machine, and customization is the most important service.

This thinking in terms of systems, where technological development meets the building of relationship, has traversed our history. It has shaped our identity and the growth not only of our business partnerships, our ties with the local community, our desire to support students and research, and our desire to build a strong sense of belonging and pride in our team. That is exactly what a heartbeat is for: it spreads lifeforce and energy from the inside out, but it’s mutually enriching, connecting us in our common goals.

3 - How has your vision evolved through the years, and can you tell us how it has impacted on your design method?

When we look at our timeline, we see a lot of landmarks we are proud of: the launch of our automation department, the start of direct manufacture of silos, our first international tradeshows, partnerships formed across continents, the steady introduction of new technologies, the transfer to a new headquarters and a decade later to another as a testament to our growth. As you can see, there’s a red thread: from local to global and back, we have not stopped pursuing technological excellence, we have not stopped investing in the power of networks and relationships. Our product, our method, our process and our innovation itself are all tailor-made. This is why we internalized the almost totality of processes, starting with the entirety of the automation, to ensure we had a thorough knowledge and control of the installation and could provide assistance with very short reaction times. Mechanical and electrical design, automation, quality control, logistics and commissioning, but it doesn’t stop there. Our after-service is responsive, seamless and local from maintenance, to spare-parts, to testing and training: we offer the whole package because we know how critical it is. Just as critical as having all your ingredient management handled by a single system: not just storing, transport and dosing operations, but all finishing processes.

Bulk-handling involves more than just silos, and our method sees all operations in their totality, and the way they interact with each other. With this systematic thinking, we design the dosing system by analyzing customer processes thoroughly, considering all aspects from raw materials to marketing and future production projections, in order to create flexible solutions that will easily accommodate future developments. This is what makes our systems so durable, fitting with the principles of the circular economy model.

4 - You said innovation happens with every system you design: what do you mean?

Call it dynamism, call it creativity, but when we say CEPI is an idea factory we mean it. Every installation is different, and every story is important. With the high levels of customization going into our projects and the diversity of needs we intercept across the globe, our research is always ongoing and has translated into unparalleled technological range. Our motto: if a process needs it, we can do it. If we can’t do it yet, we will develop it, just for you.  That is why throughout the years, the range of our equipment has expanded to include fermentation, cooling, cold dosing, fluidization, milling, blending, and rework. As a testament to our commitment to research, when we moved into our new headquarters in 2021 we built a 240 m2 testing and prototyping room where our customers are able to perform dosing and conveyance tests directly on their own materials and we can create system wide prototypes. The innovation process, which in CEPI is particularly prolific with a range of technologies unmatched in the industry, is closely linked to our emphasis on the relationship. Because we are deeply oriented to the needs of the final user our research develops in dialogue, not just responding to the specific circumstances of each manufacturer but also to imagine their future.

In a way, innovation comes from relation too. That is why we chose Heart of technology as our tagline: people the driving force of CEPI. Integrating every contribution and connecting people with each other in the best possible way is fundamental. Without a shadow of a doubt, valorizing and cultivating talent, facilitating communication, ensuring welfare are all different ways to create a real sense of belonging and a deeper investment in the company’s project. That is why we invest extensively in training, in the quality of processes and the psychological wellbeing of our employees.

5 - Do you have a sustainability strategy? 

The principle of giving back, where the people we work with must benefit from what we do, has guided us from our beginning. It has now evolved into an ample and diverse strategy that focuses on solid and regenerative growth, benefiting people, the market, the planet, and the territory. It includes themes ranging from a vast welfare program, the circularity of our product, collaborations with educational institutions and community organizations, our gender equality strategy, quality control system, and our new headquarters as a low-impact, energetically self-sufficient building. Our vision, guided by the 5Ps (People, Planet, Partnership, Prosperity, Peace), authentically integrates sustainability into every aspect of corporate life: it is not a case that we named our sustainability report Beat of Technology, the same beat we celebrate in our 40th anniversary.

6 - In conclusion, what are your plans for the future?

We have many concrete goals: increasing production capacity, optimizing workflow and process quality, investing in research and development, and performing more tests and prototypes. We aim to deliver more training, enhance welfare, and ensure sustainability through assessment and corrective actions. Our goal is to grow while staying true to our identity and vision. We are adaptable and not afraid of change, viewing the future as a continuation of our solid path. The challenge is to meet new demands without losing our strengths, like maintaining flexibility while expanding rapidly. We trust our history, crew, partners, technology, and ability to innovate, generate value, and grow. Like a heartbeat.