THE HISTORY

How is a great idea conceived and how does it come into being? BCS came into being in the early 1940s on a simple intuition of Luigi Castoldi, its ingenious founder. Its first business revolved around a tiny workshop in Abbiategrasso, a small town in the valley of the Ticino River; the area was still highly agricultural: all the work, sowing and reaping was done by hand. It was 1942 and a terrible war was going on. The period was uncertain and not at all favourable for opening new businesses, but Luigi Castoldi saw the near future very clearly and had one certainty to defend: agricultural mechanization had stopped at the beginning of the century, to be competitive sooner or later it had to become allied with industry and would need investments in technologies and machinery. From a mere observation, there began a story which was to be studded with success.

The many capacities of the "engineer" included his talent as an inventor. He wholly designed the futuristic motor-boat which in 1930, piloted by his brother Achille, made the world speed record for Italy; the same prize went to the Macchi-Castoldi MC 72 seaplane with a Fiat engine, conceived by his cousin Mario. The unusual inventiveness of the Castoldis was accompanied by an inclination for entrepreneurship. The combination was very successful: the first motor-mowing machines were created, wholly conceived and produced in Italy. Farm workers were grateful: the debilitating efforts of many hours spent in the sun were only a memory to tell their children. The success was overwhelming and the way was now open. The production of the small workshop, which had now become large, moved towards a complete range of farming machinery that was increasingly specialized and efficient and which was to revolutionize the farming world forever.

THE PHILOSOPHY

The years of the reconstruction, of the economic boom and of the industrial revival were golden years for BCS. The period after the war gave new meanings to the basic idea of the founder: research, development, expansion and diversification. Four mainstays which allowed the company to overcome every new phase. BCS was wise in its choices, the range was extended and the production units were multiplied with the acquisition of new market segments. The demand for increasingly professional farming machinery was accompanied by the demand from the amateur and professional gardening sectors. BCS met the demand with the quality and reliability of always. The new globalizing trends of the markets were carefully followed. The challenge was enormous and the stakes high. The engineer Fabrizio Castoldi, Luigi's son, managed BCS with the help of valid collaborators. Forecasts already indicated as new ideas flexibility and being able to respond with large numbers. In 1963, BCS founded MOSA, a company specialized in the production of motor welding sets and generators. This step marked the entry of BCS into the sector of industrial machines. Production, which until then had been linked only to the agricultural sector, now became diversified. To ride the wave of the markets, acquisition proved in time to be the best way. In 1988 BCS bought the FERRARI brand, a genius in low-power tractors. In 1999 it was the turn of the Florence-based PASQUALI, a milestone for agricultural machinery. The spirit moving the Group is the full acceptance of competition, conceived as an essential component of market economies. The rule of necessity becomes a strong point and authentic stimulus never to stop.