Mapei

MAPEI is an Italian company founded in 1937 by Rodolfo Squinzi in Milan, Italy. It evolved from a small wall paint producer into a worldwide producer of adhesives, thinsets and sealants for buildings (building materials).

MAPEI stands for “Materiali Ausiliari Per l’Edilizia e l’Industria”,

In the 1930s Rodolfo Squinzi founded MAPEI as a small family business in Milan, Italy, with the intent to fill a void in the local construction industry by manufacturing interior and exterior paints and masonry repair products for commercial buildings, hospitals and airports. MAPEI commenced business on February 12, 1937, with a three-person workforce.

Under Squinzi’s guidance, MAPEI expanded its manufacturing to adhesives for laying floors and floor coverings. The company’s first adhesives were for linoleum, later followed by ceramic tile, stone, carpet, PVC and wood. As the flooring industry grew, especially the Italian ceramic tile market, MAPEI recognized a need for setting materials that would make tile installation faster and more secure, and developed products accordingly.

Rodolfo’s son, Ing. Giorgio Squinzi, an industrial chemistry graduate, now heads MAPEI, which has become a leading manufacturer of mortars, adhesives, grouts, sealants, waterproofing agents, additives for concrete and other specialty products for the building industry. MAPEI remains a family-owned and -operated business and is a privately held entity generating annual revenues of more than one billion euros.