Company History

The DIATEC CLES story began in the late 1960s in Milan with the business experience of Diego Mosna, the current President of the Diatec Group. He established the single-person company "D. Mosna" starting sales of machines and media imported from the United States for the reproduction of images. The company later changed name to "Diazitalia".

In 1973 Diego Mosna founded a processing centre in Cles. In 1978 the company Diatec Cles S.p.A. was established to produce heliographic paper. The company soon expanded in order to better meet the demands of the reference market, with further extensions of the operating base over subsequent years.

Diego Mosna immediately realized the strategic importance of a direct presence in certain European countries. In 1980 the company Diatrace S.A. was established with head office in Paris to look after the northern European market. In the mid 1990s Diego Mosna further expanded his business, exploring the natural paper production sector “upstream” of the company’s existing industrial cycle. The obvious aim was to vertically integrate the Group. The experience developed with the purchase and management of the Subiaco paper mill, later sold in 1998, was extended and consolidated. Also in 1998, through Cartiere della Valtellina S.p.A., the Group purchased the business branch of the Binda Group, with sites in Vedano Olona (VA) and Tirano (SO) producing high quality reproduction paper, and paper for printers, faxes, and photocopiers. This rapidly became a reference partner for a large number of customers outside of the Group as well as the consociate Diatec.

In 2000 the "technical paper section" completed two important transactions. On 1st April the production site at Chateauroux was purchased from the multinational Ocè, through the subsidiary Diatechnologies S.A. This company, located in the heart of France, developed a considerable turnover and permitted the "technical paper section" of the Group to achieve important technological developments, with subsequent expansion of the product range and reorganization of European distribution. In the autumn the purchase was concluded of the Spanish company Diatecnologia S.A. from the German Hoechst Group, Kalle Repromedia division. This further acquisition completed the organizational structure of the Group in the European technical paper sector.

A decisive moment in the Group’s evolution was the acquisition of the multinational Sihl, world leaders in the production and commercialization of large format digital printing paper (for graphic and technical applications), in November 2003. This was one of the most important operations of all time in the international printing media sector.
 
In July 2008 the Group made another strategic investment, including two production sites for the first time in North America. The American business Arkwright was purchased from the OCE Group, one of the main competitors in the Digital Imaging sector in North America. Subsequently Arkwright’s European commercial branch was also absorbed.

 In this way the Diatec Group has become world leader in the paper market for technical drawings, laser/ink-jet printing, and for all modern graphic applications.