The founders: Homberger and Rollo It is 1905 and two colleagues and friends who are not yet thirty decide to forma partnership to start a company for importing and marketing technical productsfor industries and agencies. The signatures which appear on the act ofincorporation of the Company dated 10 November are those of Walter Homberger and Ubaldo Rollo. Thus was founded the companyW. Homberger & Co., a company which is 100 years old today due to the mark left by the two founder members, who offered competence and reliability to each customer and trust and genuine cooperation to all suppliers. “Initially there were only a few of us working for Mr Homberger and MrRollo: a few office workers and a man who did the heavy work and an errand boy.”

		Large companies on the books The first account books, dated 1906, list among the customers important names of the period, such as: Società Industriale Eridania, Società Anonima Fiat, La Magona d’Italia, Altiforni e Fonderie di Piombino, Ansaldo, Armstrong & Co., Lancia Fabbrica Automobili. But not only this. After barely 6 years, the company W. Homberger & Co. took part in its first World Fair in Turin, which opened up to the Company new international markets such as Germany and Switzerland, its first important suppliers. Markets which still regard Homberger S.p.A. as a key player. “We went to the Hanover Fair and had a rather adventurous journey. On our descent to Lake Lucerne, the petrol pump support broke. Mr Rollo repaired the damage in the dark.”

		Genoa: seat of many head offices From its modest offices in the Piazza delle Scuole Pie to the premises in the via Ippolito D’Aste: in 100 years of history Homberger has moved to various head offices, as the Company has grown.To demonstrate how Homberger has developed, it is enough to bear in mind that as early as 1911, given that the first office was too small, the Company moved to Sampierdarena, in via S. Antonio and then to via Vittorio Emanuele (today via Buranello), the first head office with sufficient capacity for the company, which was followed by the complexes in via Brigata Liguria and the current Logistics Centre in via al Santuario di N.S. della Guardia. “I remember the Exhibition Hall. So much care was taken that the staff were not allowed to cross the hall. To reach where you were working you had to go downstairs and cross the basements to re-emerge at the other end of the hall.”

		The Italian boom and choice The ’60s marked the rebirth of the country. Italian products, and in this case machine tools, took the lead on the international market. Homberger, in commercial dealings with German suppliers, has a decision to make: to still rely on German producers, who are not always able to be competitive, or to rely on new emerging Japanese suppliers. The solution became clear when the German company Trumpf decided to develop assistance to the customer directly in Italy, thus allowing Homberger to continue along the path it had embarked on with a known and valued partner. “In the early ‘50s, Homberger had the large OM lorry and a Fiat 500minivan (Topolino) for small, short-distance consignments.”

		Two decades of changes TThe ‘70s and ‘80s were a period of profound changes in Italy. It was strongly tempting for Homberger to move to the emerging industrial hub of Milan, as it considered its site in Genoa to be inadequate. A change which only took place, however, in 1989, when the warehouse moved to Padua and Milan (recently returned to the Genova Bolzaneto complex). In 1985 when Walter Rollo suddenly left after having run the company for thirty years, the company passed to the young Alberto Marsano and Mario Rossi, who are still guiding Homberger towards the future today. “It was 1979 and two young men came to Homberger, rising quickly from the ranks after 3 years in the warehouse and sales. I did not yet know that in a few years they would become the heads of the company.”

		Data processing centre The first machine to record and print information on customers, suppliers and accounting on the Homberger books was called National. It was a manual system which was replaced by an Olivetti 603 which, in addition to printing on paper, also stored the data. But the real information technology revolution came in 1980/81, when Homberger automated everything to do with accounts and introduced the new technology in the commercial departments too. This was an enormous job: it is enough to say that it took 7 months to enter everything into the archive. On the other hand, ’89 saw the launch of the first PCs, which marked the arrival of a “network” between the subsidiaries of the Company. “In spite of a careful check, errors were found: with the system at the time total counts increased as if by magic. To do this, the manual recording method was abandoned for an automated system.”