Zanussi
The 26-year-old son of a blacksmith in Pordenone in Northeastern Italy began the business by making home stoves and wood-burning ovens.The next decade was one of important purchases, with the Becchi, Castor, Zoppas and Triplex brands all joining the Zanussi Group, and of the start-up of manufacturing outside Italy.Zanussi advanced to leadership of the Italian household appliance industry with a 25% market share, and was among the foremost producers in Europe with 10% of sales throughout the continent.The death of Lino Zanussi and his closest assistants in an airplane crash in Spain on 18 June 1968 marked a change of strategy.In the meantime the economic situation in Italy had changed and with plans for diversification undermined by the difficulties being experienced by Italian industry in general, Zanussi slipped towards financial crisis in the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s.