Stevanato Group, leader in glass containers manufacturing for pharmaceutical use, wins the Mercurio Award 2016 for the significant Italian-German economic cooperation and the acquisition in 2016 of the operational activities of Balda AG.

CRIF, Calzedonia, and Florian Leonhard Fine Violins receive a special mention thanks for their important economic and cultural projects between Italy and Germany.

Düsseldorf, 7^th of July 2016 – Stevanato Group is the winner of Mercurio Award 2016, the annual reward conferred by the Italian-German Economic Association MERCURIO to those companies that during the last 12 months contributed to the economic and cultural affairs between Italy and Germany.

With a turnover of 337,1 million euros in 2015, production plants and sales offices in 9 different countries, Stevanato Group is leader in cartridges manufacturing for insulin, glass containers for pharmaceutical use and in glass tube forming machines, inspection systems for pharmaceutical industry and assembling, packaging and serialization solutions.

At the beginning of 2016, Stevanato Group has acquired the operation activities of the German group Balda AG that offers high quality plastic solution with high precision and security standards. In healthcare segment, Balda operates in the diagnostic field and medical devices. Thanks to this acquisition, the company carries on its project of internationalization and starts moving from glass components to the integrated system for the pharmaceutical companies. The jury of Mercurio rewards Stevanato Group for its sustainable contribution to the cooperation between Italy and Germany, the perfect innovation and technological transfer activity and the resulting positive image to the Made in Italy model.

“It is an honor for us winning this Award and we are very satisfied.” Affirmed Franco Stevanato, CEO of Stevanato Group. “This acquisition represents a big step of our strategy that presuppose an increase of our product portfolio by linking the actual offer to integrated systems for the drug delivery. This means moving to a higher level on the added-value chain. The project represents also an important stage for the relationship with one of the most important country in the pharmaceutical industry. “

Other rewards have been assigned to CRIF, Calzedonia and Leonhard Fine Violins.

Eckart Petzold, President of MERCURIO, congratulates with Stevanato Group and with the other rewarded companies: “The recognitions of this year are a proof of the strong integration of manufacturing systems between the two countries and demonstrate also a propensity of Italian companies in German investments.”

Pietro Benassi, Italian Ambassador in Germany affirmed: “In a community contest like the actual one, economic and cultural affairs between Italy and Germany represent a certainty. Companies that invest abroad should be rewarded because they create new job positions and bring new ideas in the area of expertise. The awarded companies this year bring prestige in Made In Italy concept.”