BOSTON — One in four diapers sold worldwide in 2025 was produced on an Angelini Technologies machine, according to company figures. Behind this everyday product lies an Italian industrial story that began in Abruzzo in 1975: five decades of designing and building automated production lines for diapers and sanitary products, sold in markets around the world.

Today, that expertise is looking for a new application in warehouses and materials handling. Angelini Technologies, an Angelini Industries company operating through its subsidiary Fameccanica, is investing in logistics robotics. The challenge is to bring the reliability of industrial production lines into environments where package sizes, the arrangement of goods and operating conditions constantly vary.

In April 2026, the company opened a research and development center in Boston dedicated to this field. Its research activities are complemented by manufacturing operations in Cincinnati, where Fameccanica North America has operated since 2009 and doubled the size of its production facility this year.

A turning point came in 2022, when Angelini Industries acquired Procter & Gamble’s remaining 50 percent stake in Fameccanica, taking full ownership after a thirty-year joint venture. The acquisition supported the company’s diversification beyond hygiene products. In 2025, Angelini Technologies reported approximately €390 million in revenue, an increase of nearly 60 percent.

For Luigi De Vito, CEO of Angelini Technologies, establishing a presence in the United States means understanding customers’ needs firsthand and developing solutions alongside them.

Sergio Marullo di Condojanni, CEO Angelini Industries, and Luigi De Vito, CEO Angelini Technologies - Fameccanica.

Why Boston? What does the city offer a company with your industrial background?

“Our transformation began with the opportunity to automate complex processes in logistics and distribution. That also required us to change the way we approach the market: from being a company capable of taking its technology around the world to one capable of immersing itself in individual markets and learning from them. To do that, proximity to customers is essential. We need to be where their needs emerge, observe operational challenges firsthand and develop solutions alongside the people who use them every day.

“Boston offers a major opportunity in this respect because it brings together a distinctive ecosystem of customers, suppliers, universities and startups. Universities generate knowledge and entrepreneurship, while startups develop innovative ideas and look for industrial partners that can help them scale. The real value lies in the ability to turn innovation rapidly into products and services, and that is precisely where Angelini Technologies can make the difference.”

When you opened the Boston facility, you also announced an investment in Lab0, an American startup with a research center in Italy. How does it fit into your growth strategy?

“Lab0 was founded to solve a very specific problem for customers: loading and unloading objects that are arranged irregularly inside trucks and shipping containers. Moving neatly organized pallets is a task for which established technologies already exist. Handling boxes and objects of different shapes and sizes, positioned in unpredictable ways, is a much more complex challenge.

“The solution began with software: interpreting the environment, recognizing objects, learning and adapting movements in real time. On that foundation, the team developed a mobile robotic platform equipped with two arms and capable of operating in unstructured environments.

“The American founder found the expertise needed to develop this solution in a group of researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology. Today, an international team in Genoa develops artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies at the core of the system. We recognized the value of combining American innovation with Italian expertise and decided to support the company’s industrial growth.

“This investment gives us access to a critical segment of the logistics chain with proprietary technology. Today, that segment still relies predominantly on manual labor, often under working conditions that can pose risks to employees. It is a market with enormous growth potential, with estimates suggesting it could reach approximately $8 billion by 2030.”

How important will the United States be to your future growth?

“The U.S. market is fundamental to us and will remain as such. It represents a major opportunity in terms of demand, while also serving as a reference point for innovation, expertise and the ability to turn new ideas rapidly into industrial applications.

“It is a market that is particularly receptive to automation, partly because of the growing difficulty of finding workers in certain sectors, and there is a strong willingness to adopt innovative solutions. That is why we have chosen to strengthen our presence in the United States, investing both in research and development in Boston and in manufacturing capacity in Cincinnati.

“We want the United States to play an increasingly central role in our growth by expanding our direct presence in the market and developing new opportunities in the sectors with the greatest potential. To succeed, we will need to stay closer to our customers, respond quickly to changes in the market and make our organization even more flexible. As evidence of that commitment, we expect to increase our U.S. workforce by approximately 100 people over 2026 and 2027.”

What expertise allows you to stand out in such an advanced and competitive market?

“Many of the technologies transforming robotics today, from artificial intelligence to machine vision, are becoming increasingly accessible. What makes the difference is the ability to turn those technologies into industrial systems that can operate safely, reliably and continuously.

“Safety is essential, particularly in environments where people and robots share the same workspace. We have extensive experience designing and building automation systems capable of operating at extremely high speeds while meeting demanding quality standards. That experience allows us to bring innovative technologies into logistics robotics, together with the ability to make them scalable and suitable for widespread adoption by customers.”

Industrial technology is one of the main drivers of growth for Angelini Industries, the group to which Angelini Technologies belongs to. Its U.S. expansion and development of logistics robotics form part of that broader strategy, building on expertise accumulated over decades of innovation in industrial automation.

Sergio Marullo di Condojanni, CEO of Angelini Industries, explains the group’s vision:

“For more than fifty years, Angelini Technologies - Fameccanica has developed distinctive expertise in industrial automation, designing systems capable of operating with exceptionally high levels of precision, reliability and productivity. This technological foundation continues to support our global leadership in the Hygiene and Home & Personal Care sectors, where we remain firmly committed to innovation and to supporting our customers around the world.

“When we began looking at developments in logistics robotics, we saw a natural extension of that expertise. The applications present different challenges, but many of the capabilities required to design intelligent, automated and scalable systems are built on the same foundations.

“Acquiring full ownership of Fameccanica in 2022 was a pivotal strategic step for the Angelini Industries group, allowing us to accelerate the company’s growth and diversification. Logistics robotics is one of the areas where we see the most promising opportunities for the future: a rapidly evolving sector in which we can draw on expertise built over decades of industrial experience while developing new technological platforms with a global outlook.”