Since being founded in 1942, the company has developed its strengths in design and engineering to become CESAB Material Handling, a counterbalanced forklift and warehouse equipment manufacturer.

CESAB’s strong engineering tradition began with the development of products for the material handling and railway industries, with the company making its first electric forklift truck in 1951 and its first diesel forklift in 1954.

An impressive heritage includes the founding of CESAB Carrelli Elevatori S.p.A in Bologna, one of the first forklift manufacturers in Italy.

In 1953 Italian dealer Mario Marabini secured the first authorised dealer agreement with CESAB and brothers Nerio and Maurizio Marabini continue to manage the same CESAB dealership to this day. Expansion into Europe began in 1958 when the first dealer outside Italy, Joris Van Dijck of Belgium, was appointed and two brothers from this family still run the business today.

Director of CESAB Material Handling Europe, Angelo Aldé: “The foundation for the success of our company lies in our manufacturing history and passion for design and engineering.”

To celebrate the 70th anniversary, CESAB has launched a unique mini-site which provides a window on its heritage. www.cesab-history.eu has a collection of images from the 1940s through to the present day.

Among the milestones highlighted on the mini-site are CESAB’s link with Pininfarina S.p.A, the leading Italian design house. Employed by a wide variety of high-end automobile manufacturers, Pininfarina has also worked on industrial design projects for CESAB, including the electric Blitz range of forklifts in the 1990s.

Other highlights include 1994 when CESAB products were awarded the Compasso d'Oro, an Italian industrial design prize which acknowledges and promotes quality in the field of industrial design originating in Italy. Further awards came in 2000 when CESAB received the iF product design award, regarded as one of the world’s most important product design awards.

Today, with a corporate head office in Brussels and sales support in Bologna, CESAB Material Handling Europe distributes its expanding product range to customers in 23 countries through a network of exclusive independent dealers. This helps customers to have the best of both worlds; high quality products backed by strong local support and rapid response times