ITALIAN FANTI GROUP TO OPEN ITS FIRST U.S. HEADQUARTERS

A large group of Fanti USA representatives, as well as local, county and state officials gathered in Weirton have attended the groundbreaking event in order to officially welcome the company to the Ohio Valley. Fanti USA will thus be the first facility in the United States for Italian manufacturer Gruppo Fanti.

The headquarters will be located in the former Signode building in the Half Moon Industrial Park. In addition, the Fanti USA subsidiary plans to invest around US$30 million in the building, according to Marvin Six, executive director of Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle.

Nicola DeSantis, treasurer and board member of Fanti USA, notes that the company looked at many areas of the country when deciding to locate a U.S. operation, and ultimately decided on the Rust Belt region because of its history with manufacturing and the dedication of its workforce.

Luca Fanti, technical director and son of the company’s founder, Giorgio Fanti, recalled the story of his father, who grew up in Bologna, Italy, and started his company in 1945 by recovering empty tuna cans brought by the U.S. military as part of the liberation of the city during World War II.

Once operational, the facility will manufacture metal packaging containers with state-of-the-art equipment. A project that will create 40 new jobs by the beginning of 2023. A subsidiary of Italy’s Gruppo Fanti, Fanti USA will be the manufacturer’s first operation in the United States, as well as its largest expansion. The company currently has five production plants in Europe, Africa and Asia, and manufactures more than 100 million cans a year.