A century of Solvay Italia

With the inauguration at the Milan Triennale of the exhibition-event "La nostra energia è il futuro" (Our Energy is the Future) on 30 October, Solvay celebrated 100 years of its presence in Italy. The company has been in Italy since 1912 when the historical plant in Rosignano Solvay (Livorno, Italy) was founded. The group now includes 11 plants managed through the Italian headquarters in Bollate (just north of Milan), which also boasts a state-of-the-art research centre with 220 researchers.
The installation set up in the famous Milanese cultural venue treats visitors to the sensation of being immersed in the test tubes of a R&D laboratory, symbolically connecting to the core of chemistry, and gives them an intuitive feel for how formulas are transformed into indispensable products and cutting edge technologies that improve the quality of our lives.
Solvay's Italian operations are engaged in the group's various chemical and plastics production processes, with a work force of approximately 2300 employees. In 2011, Solvay Italia brought in earnings of 1.047 billion euros. The group also invested further in Italy by merging four companies in the field of special polymers on the international level to create Solvay Specialty Polymers, operating under the Bollate headquarters. The centennial celebrations in Italy open the doors in 2013 to the sesquicentennial of the founding of the Solvay Group in Belgium.