Fragrance Pumps: Costertec Celebrates Its 60th Anniversary!
The Costertec plant, part of the Coster Group and located in Torello in northern Spain—about an hour and a half from Barcelona—is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Although it has kept a low profile in recent years—much like the Group to which it belongs—this plant still produces some 300 million pumps annually for the fragrance industry, and Coster’s executives intend to further strengthen its position in this highly competitive market thanks to its exceptionally efficient production facilities, which include more than 30 assembly lines, the latest of which—which has just been installed—is capable of assembling about a hundred pumps per minute. It’s worth noting that the Group is continuing its aggressive overseas production strategy with the launch of a new factory in Mexico at the end of the year; while currently focused on “aerosol valves,” it could eventually incorporate the production of this fragrance pump. An update with Damiano Marsilli, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer.
Since its founding in 1963, the Coster Group—which has always been family-owned—has belonged to the Segatta family. Today, it is owned by the founder’s two daughters, Martina and Cristina, and led by Bernard Msellati, CEO, and positions itself as a multinational supplier of spray systems (valves and pumps) as well as—and this is what sets it apart—aerosol filling machines. With 285 million euros in revenue projected for 2025—two-thirds of which comes from the production of aerosol machines and valves, and one-third from pump systems—and eighteen locations worldwide, including ten production sites (U.S., Argentina, Brazil, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, India, Malaysia)—the Coster Group has undeniably been one of the world leaders in the aerosol market for over 60 years. “We are the only company in the world,” explains Damiano Marsilli, “that designs and manufactures both packaging components and aerosol filling equipment. ” In 2020, the group expanded its range of pumps into the fragrance industry, capitalizing, among other things, on the acquisition of the Annecy-based French company Catidom, which specializes in anodizing. “Since 1966,” emphasizes Damiano Marsilli, “it has been clear that we have established a true center of excellence in Spain dedicated to the fragrance industry. It is an integrated ecosystem of state-of-the-art automated production facilities, specialized teams, laboratories, and a global sales network serving the fragrance industry. The in-house integration of metal anodizing through Catidom strengthens our capabilities for customization and high-end finishes for the luxury fragrance sector. At Costertec, we combine technical expertise with a customer-centric approach to offer customized pump solutions for the fragrance industry. From compatibility testing to color matching and spray performance evaluation, our services are designed to ensure that your product meets the highest standards, both functionally and aesthetically.”
Bernard Msellati & Damiano Marsilli
MPO 2.0: The Latest Fragrance Pump
MPO 2.0 is the latest evolution of Coster’s MPO fragrance pump platform. “This enhanced platform,” emphasizes Damiano Marsilli, “retains the compact and discreet profile, gentle actuation force, seal-less design, pre-compression system, and fine atomization performance of the original MPO.” Thanks to optimized internal components, this new design offers greater reliability under critical testing and storage conditions, particularly when exposed to high temperatures and aggressive formulations. By reducing the risk of leakage and ensuring consistent product performance throughout the supply chain, the MPO 2.0 helps preserve product integrity while maintaining full compatibility with existing configurations and components.”
The MAXX 130, meanwhile, combines a compact form factor with high flow rate, thereby meeting the functional and aesthetic requirements of more sophisticated fragrance applications. “Designed to deliver a precise 130-μl dose,” explains Damiano Marsilli, “this solution ensures consistent performance while maintaining a discreet and reliable design, making it particularly well-suited for fragrance formulations. The pump features a crimp-on closure and is compatible with FEA 15 & FEA 20 glass bottles and can be fitted with EPDM or Buna O-rings, providing broad compatibility with various formulations. This pump is manufactured in India for a more mass-market audience.”
The First of Coster’s Three Lives
To mark Costertec’s 60th anniversary, the Coster Group published a book on the Group’s history. Here are some excerpts….
“The first of Coster’s three lives began on November 25, 1963, in Milan, where the company was founded by five partners. It was a Monday. The sky was gray over the Lombard capital, but the weather was exceptionally mild for the season. At the newsstand, for 50 lire, one could buy the daily newspaper *Corriere della Sera*, whose front page that day was devoted to the events that followed the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. But to better understand the era in which Coster was born, one would have to look beyond the front pages of the newspapers, flip through the inside pages, and—rather than focusing on the articles—take the time to browse the advertisements: liqueurs, Italian and foreign cars, coffee, clothing… The colors and images evoke an elegant, sophisticated, prosperous, and “ambitious” world, and clearly reflect what was happening in a country that, eighteen years earlier, had emerged shattered from World War II and was now in the midst of what would come to be called the “boom”—the economic miracle.
This was the Italy of *Il Sorpasso* [The Easy Life], released in theaters in December 1962. It was a country moving away from the postwar abyss, much like the Lancia Aurelia B24 in which Vittorio Gassman speeds along the newly paved Via Aurelia.
Among the many causes of this miraculous renaissance, two of the key drivers that propelled Italy forward—enabling it to transform, in just a few years, from an agricultural nation into one of the West’s leading industrial powers—were the mechanical engineering industry and, above all, the petrochemical industry. A month after that Monday in November 1963, Giulio Natta, a scientist from Liguria, would receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for inventing isotactic polypropylene in 1953, also known as Moplen; a strong and inexpensive material that revolutionized the plastics and polymer industry, enabling the production of a multitude of objects characteristic of Italians’ new way of life.
In the 1950s, even Italy’s largest electric utility, Edison, decided to diversify its operations and expand its presence in the chemical sector (it later merged with Montecatini, giving rise to Montedison, Italy’s largest industrial chemical group). A man named Giancarlo Giuffredi was also working at Edison at that time: born in 1936, he had previously gained experience at Brown, Boveri & Cie, a Swiss electrical engineering firm. Giancarlo Giuffredi, then thirty years old, dreamed of designing tanks, but on November 25, 1963, his name appeared among the five signatories of the articles of incorporation for a company that would have nothing to do with armored military vehicles. The sector he was about to enter was, in fact, the aerosol industry.
In the 1960s, aerosol technology was still in its infancy, although the earliest known examples date back to prehistoric times, when some of our artistically inclined ancestors would put colored liquid in their mouths or into tubes and blow it out, spraying it to leave the negative imprints of their hands on cave walls. After this initial achievement, however, aerosols saw no major advances for 17,000 years, until 1927, when Norwegian chemical engineer Erik Rotheim was granted the first patent for an aerosol spray. In 1931, this patent was sold to an American company, and it was in the United States—using as a propellant a new refrigerant gas created around the same time by an American chemical engineer—that the technology was perfected: the result was dichlorodifluoromethane, better known by its trade name “Freon.”
Although tanks were not involved, there is nevertheless a connection between Coster and the armed forces, because—like many everyday items—the first aerosols as we know them today were initially produced for military purposes. They were first used during World War II. American soldiers serving in the Pacific needed DDT-based insecticides (one of the first aerosol products and one of the most popular) to protect themselves from mosquitoes, which in those regions do more than just cause annoying itching—they can also transmit malaria. A practical and functional container was needed to hold the insecticide liquid, and the aerosol proved to be perfect for this purpose. For many years thereafter, aerosols were used primarily for insecticides: it was only starting in the 1950s—thanks to changing consumer habits driven by rising living standards among a large segment of the population—that they also found applications in other market sectors, including paints and cosmetics, from perfumes to shaving cream and hairspray.
It was also the incredible ease of use of aerosols that struck a chord with Giancarlo Giuffredi, the engineer, and fascinated him. Aware of their profitability, he abandoned tanks and joined Solfrene, a company that manufactured aerosol products equipped with valves it produced in-house, for which it had obtained a patent.
It was there that Giancarlo Giuffredi strove to find the most cost-effective way to produce the parts that make up a valve—and discovered he had a real talent for it. This would be proven by the dozens of patents on valves, machines, and pumps that he would file over the years. However, business was not going well at Solfrene, and after only one year—dissatisfied with the way they were being treated—Giancarlo Giuffredi and four colleagues, led by engineer Ruscitti, decided to leave the company with the intention of founding a new one: in addition to Giancarlo Giuffredi, who was to head the machinery division, the others were Torretta, head of the valve division; Albini, technical director; Lucchini, sales director; and Ruscitti, who would serve as general manager for several years. All the key figures and necessary expertise were now in place to launch a new company in the aerosol industry. All that was missing was a name and, above all, the funds needed to launch the company. Both would soon present themselves: the five partners were in fact contacted by two financiers, the Ruggeri brothers. In the articles of incorporation, the new company was named Coster, short for Costruzioni Termomeccaniche. That was on November 25, 1963. Sixty years later, this name is one of the best-known in the world in the aerosol industry.”
To be continued next month…
