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110 years of history, since 1916

In 1916, in Lugo di Romagna, a small workshop was founded: a handful of women washed and selected down and feather by hand. That was the first nucleus of what would become Minardi Piume.

From that artisan workshop, the business grew generation after generation, always staying in the hands of the same family and rooted in the same territory.

In the 1950s, the first sorting machines arrived from West Germany, working alongside manual labour and marking the start of the process’s mechanisation.

In the 1970s, the plant expanded, becoming an international reference point in the down and feather supply chain.

In the 1990s, the internal recycling department was born, today the foundation of the P.U.R.E.® programme: more than thirty years of experience regenerating post-consumer down and feather.

In 2017, Dreamin’101 was launched, the group’s consumer brand dedicated to finished home products, followed by Koalasleep: a vertical integration that carries the supply chain all the way to the shelf.

Today, led by the fourth generation of the family, Minardi Piume is an Italian industrial group working daily toward an increasingly traceable and circular down and feather supply chain.

The Minardi Piume plant in Lugo di Romagna seen from a drone: the six shed vaults, the countryside and the solar roofWatch the Company Tour (5'43")
The Lugo plant from above, March 2026. The tour of the departments, filmed in 2019, opens on YouTube.

Milestones

Milestones with a photograph open when you click them. The period originals held in digital form are small format and published as they are: the search for the original prints is under way.

  1. 1916

    Founded

    A small workshop, Minardi Piume, is founded in Lugo di Romagna: a handful of women wash and select down and feather by hand.

    See the photograph
    Period black-and-white photograph: a group of Minardi Piume workers posing outdoors
    The workforce in an archive photograph from the 1930s, the oldest we hold in digital form.
  2. 1950s

    Mechanisation

    The first sorting machines arrive from West Germany, working alongside manual labour.

    See the photograph
    Period black-and-white photograph: the plant workforce posing outdoors with the management
    The plant workforce in an archive photograph from the 1960s.
  3. 1970s

    Expansion

    The plant grows beyond 20,000 m² of production space.

  4. 1990s

    P.U.R.E.® recycling

    The internal recycling department is born: today, more than 30 years of experience regenerating post-consumer down and feather.

    See the photograph
    A gloved hand opening the shell of a post-consumer garment and pulling the down out
    The recycling department today: down recovered by hand from an end-of-life garment.
  5. 2011

    The fourth generation

    Carlo Cassigoli joins the company leadership: the handover to the fourth generation of the family, and the start of the industrial transformation and growth that shaped the Minardi Piume of today.

  6. 2017

    Dreamin'101 launches

    The group launches its own consumer brand, dedicated to finished products for the home.

  7. 2020

    Minardi Piume Korea

    The group’s Korean company is founded: a direct presence on our first export market, close to Far East brands.

  8. 2026

    Minardi Piume Tekstil

    The group sets up its own company in Türkiye, in Istanbul: local manufacturing and a commercial presence on one of the key textile markets.

  9. 2026

    110 years

    Minardi Piume turns 110: led by the fourth generation of the family, it is today a European reference point in the circular down and feather supply chain.

    See the photograph
    The WS9 line at the Lugo plant: the green and yellow machine at the centre of the corridor of wooden cabins
    The WS9 line at the Lugo plant, today.

Numbers & stability

Four generations of family continuity and a verifiable industrial scale.

The Minardi Piume warehouse: stacks of blue and white bales of feather in perspective to the far end of the building
The Lugo warehouse: raw material in blue bales on the right, processed in white bales on the left.

3,000,000+ kg/year

of down and feather processed

1,000,000+ kg/year

recycling capacity (843,000 kg regenerated in 2025)

20,000+ m²

of production facilities

130

people on site, 10+ nationalities

Two operators at work by the press, among the big bags of down in the department

People & culture

130 people of 10+ nationalities work at our Lugo plant. A working community held together by simple, verifiable values: scientific rigour in lab testing, transparency toward customers and partners, environmental responsibility across the supply chain, and family roots that remain the foundation of Minardi Piume's Made in Italy.

With the support of European funds from the Emilia-Romagna Region we built a training plan on sustainability, digitalisation and data management involving the whole workforce. It produced the Minardi Academy, a permanent training space, the first onboarding course for new colleagues, and a Sustainability Manager on the payroll.

The project summary (PDF, Italian) →

Leadership team

The people who actually pick up the phone. A short structure: every area has a manager with a first and last name.

Carlo Cassigoli

Chief Executive Officer

Group brands

Alongside down and feather as raw material, the group vertically integrates the supply chain all the way to the finished product through the consumer brands Dreamin'101 and Koalasleep, dedicated to home products.

The group brands live on their own channels, separate from our B2B supply: customers who buy our down and feather for their own products will not find us competing on their sales channels.

Come and see the plant

The best way to get to know us is in person: laboratory, washing lines, recycling department. Visits are arranged by appointment.

The Lugo plant from above, July 2025: the vaulted sheds, the rooftop photovoltaic array and the farmland around it.