Ariston Group is founded in 1930 through the initiative of Aristide Merloni, an Italian man living an unprecedented global crisis, who has a dream. After emigrating to pursue his career, he returns to his hometown Albacina, in the Marche region of Italy, driven by the purpose of ensuring that young generations will no longer have to leave in search of employment. On July 6th, in a small shed with only six employees, he starts his own factory, turning a vision into reality and sowing the seeds of our group’s future.

When our founder Aristide Merloni starts his own activity, he begins producing professional scales. As he leverages on the competencies achieved in his previous professional experience, his entrepreneurial acumen pushes him towards pursuing technology innovation and top-notch quality standards. He starts producing an innovative tilting machine, entirely built in metal, which enables a radical change in production processes. By the end of the ‘30s, his company counts 70 employees and revenues for 500,000 lire.

During his engineering studies, Francesco Merloni, son of our founder Aristide and father of Paolo, our Executive Chairman, develops a project for a welded cylinder factory. At the end of the ‘50s, the new factory produces more than 5,000 cylinders per day and, as quality of life improves in the ‘60s, the company decides to further diversify the production towards electric water heaters. The first water heater is produced in Matelica, Italy, in 1959 – a durable good that fulfills the need for hot water in homes. Today, our strategic global brand Ariston is still synonymous with comfort through water heating in many countries in the world.

On January 25th, 1979, Merloni Finanziaria S.p.A., the name of our group at that time, makes history as the first Italian company to release a Social Report. Published by Battelle Centre de Recherche de Geneve Institute, the report evaluates our sustainability efforts across various dimensions, alongside our financial performance. Among the assessments, it highlightes key indicators such as employee training hours and apprenticeships, the consumption of non-renewable raw materials, and the percentage of recycled materials. The Institute’s choice to feature our company is driven by our distinctive industrial philosophy: a commitment to social responsibility that has driven Ariston Group over the years.