Annibale Sergio Foroni as a manufacturer of synthetic resins
founded SAFRA S.p.A. in 1961. Since 1965 the production has also
included powder resins, glues and tinting pastes. In 1969 SAFRA
began formulating and manufacturing water-based products - a quite
new idea at those times - with specific attention to decorative
finishes. Upon the death of Annibale, in 1977, SAFRA was taken
over by his son Luigi and his brother Gianfranco, both chemists.
Gianfranco decided to focus on the R&D part of the company,
while Luigi took over the marketing and commercial parts. This
new management team led SAFRA into rapid growth.
Today SAFRA COLORS S.p.A is the mother company of a group which
includes branch companies SAFRA SCHWEITZ, SAFRA DEUTSCHLAND, SAFRA
CROAZIA, SAFRA EAST and SAFRA HOLDING, together with varying degrees
of participation in a number of other leading European manufacturers
of decorative finishes
SAFRA was a pioneer in the investigation of the lime-based
finishes traditional of the Italian decorative heritage. In 1980
SAFRA began proposing to the market the rediscovery of the unique
decorative effects achievable with such a family of finishes.
The Italian market very positively accepted this rediscovery and
many more paint manufacturers followed suit.
Since then Gianfranco and his team of researchers have concentrated
their efforts on investigating and improving the technology and
performance of the tinting pastes, and masterminding a large number
of decorative effects, both mineral and acrylic water-based. Today
SAFRA has a huge portfolio of formulations, more than 70 different
ones of Venetian Plaster alone, covering a wide range of different
looks, textures and technical performances.
The decorative finishes, which outperform the present market
standards in some major feature, have been gathered into a specific
line of highly decorative products called ARTENOVA.
SAFRA's most advanced tinting pastes were included in the
ARTECOLOR tinting system. Stringent quality checks of all
incoming raw materials, of the various semifinished solutions
and of all batches of the finished products are performed. SAFRA's
commitment to Total Quality is evident to anyone visiting
our premises, where part of the machinery was developed specifically
following SAFRA's design and project suggestions.
