Bonfiglioli Riduttori was established on the 16^th April 1956 to put into practice the business ideas of Clementino Bonfiglioli, who brought to his new company years of experience in the design and manufacture of gearboxes for farm machinery and motorcycles (including legendary names like Ducati, Gilera and Moto Morini).The new company was baptised Costruzioni Meccaniche Bonfiglioli and for the first few years of its existence concentrated on the production of gearboxes for the two familiar areas of farm machinery and motorcycles, both major industries on the Bolognese industrial landscape at that time.

Towards the mid 1960s, however, a profound transformation began to sweep through the local area: the automation industry rapidly assumed major proportions and a large number of packaging machine manufacturers established themselves in and around Bologna. The area soon became the centre of the world’s packaging industry and won for itself the nickname of “Packaging Valley”.Bonfiglioli was quick to see the great opportunity that this dramatic change presented and began to design and make a range of power transmission gearboxes that rapidly set new standards for the automation industry.
In particular, Bonfiglioli designed and patented a new two-stage planetary gearbox which proved so successful that no improvements were required for the next fifteen years.

Growth accelerated even further when Bonfiglioli intelligently extended its product range by acquiring other strategic companies. The acquisition in 1975 of Trasmital, a specialist manufacturer of planetary gearboxes for earth moving machinery based in Forlì, allowed Bonfiglioli to become a leader in mobile drive trains.
The close attention with which Bonfiglioli monitored the market and its continually changing needs then led to the creation of Bonfiglioli Components, a company dedicated exclusively to the design and production of power transmission components. With the benefit of hindsight, this policy of specialisation and full process manufacturing of all components proved to be such a winner that Bonfiglioli soon found itself occupying the position of leader on all its reference markets.