From the heart of the Apennines to the forefront of global food technology, CEPI celebrates four decades of excellence in ingredient handling
2025 is now coming to an end. This year marked a turning point for CEPI, which has celebrated a remarkable milestone: forty years of continuous growth, innovation, and global expansion. Founded in 1985 in Forlì, at the feet of the Apennine mountains, CEPI was born from the vision of four families. What began as a local venture has evolved into a global leader in the design and manufacture of systems for storing, transporting, and dosing raw materials in the food industry.
Today, CEPI boasts a turnover of €41 million, a team of 172 professionals, and operations in 66 countries across five continents. With over 5,000 installations and an average of 110 exclusive turn – key systems delivered annually, CEPI is a benchmark in bulk – handling technology. But behind these impressive numbers lies a deeper story – one of partnership, innovation, and a heartbeat that has driven the company forward for four decades.
The beat of partnership
“Welcome to the beat” is the motto CEPI chose for its anniversary, and it perfectly captures the company’s essence. From the beginning, CEPI has been built on collaboration. The meeting of four professionals – an engineer, a manufacturer, a food technician, and a technical salesman – led to a plural and democratic approach to governance, that remains central to CEPI’s identity.
This spirit of partnership extends beyond leadership. CEPI’s approach is deeply customer – centered, with every system tailor – made to meet specific needs. This has shaped CEPI’s culture, fostering flexibility, responsiveness, and a wide network of local technical partners ready to support clients at any time.
The second generation of leadership continues this legacy, bringing fresh energy and ideas, ensuring continuity while driving innovation.
From flour to the future
CEPI’s journey began with flour. Its first systems served small and medium – sized bakeries, managing the essential ingredient with precision and care. Today, flour remains a key focus, but CEPI’s expertise has expanded to include complex systems for ice cream, protein bars, pet food, and more. The company now handles decades of ingredient management experience, offering comprehensive solutions that go far beyond basic operations.
CEPI’s installations are complete ecosystems, where customisation is the most important service. The company’s thinking in terms of systems – rather than individual machines – has set it apart in the industry. This holistic approach ensures that technological development is always aligned with the customer’s process, resulting in unparalleled flexibility and performance.
A global heartbeat
CEPI’s international outlook was shaped early on by the experiences of its founding families. After World War II, the Ceccarellis and Montaltis emigrated to Belgium to work as miners, a journey that instilled a global perspective and a deep appreciation for cross – cultural collaboration. France became CEPI’s first international market, and from there, the company expanded steadily across Europe and beyond.
Today, CEPI participates in over 20 trade shows annually and collaborates with some of the most important companies in the food manufacturing sector. Its growth has been horizontal and participatory, driven by a desire to share knowledge, spread positive impact, and build lasting connections. CEPI’s story is like that of a tree – firmly rooted in its local heritage, but with branches reaching toward the sky and the future.
Flexible, scalable, durable systems
We say this a lot, but bulk – handling isn’t just about silos. As important as they are, storage operations are only one part of systems we build. Because our primary goal is to provide turn – key solutions, we consider all storage, dosing, transport operations and their automation in their totality and in the way they interact with each other. This is crucial to achieve effective customisation, which in turn is what makes installations very durable.
The way we design our dosing systems is one of the strategic added values we provide to our customers. Our method sees storage, dosing, transport operations and their automation in their totality, and in the way they interact with each other. Analysis goes beyond the purely technical: we consider all user’s processes from warehouse, to production, technical, purchasing and marketing, in order to include projection of future productions.
This dosing system is of course, fully automated: production is managed through multiple operator panel solutions, and our process control software provides data control, warehouse management and full traceability as well as total information exchange through SQL database and communication with ERP or MES. Hardware and software design is done completely in – house, which allows us to provide technical and human continuity through the development of a project that can become very specific and complex. It is designed to be scalable and customisable, specific down to the single utility, managing the recipe exactly in the way indicated by the customer without overturning their process.
We take this long – term view in order to create the most flexibile solution for each food manufacturer: our installations easily accommodate new developments and expansions. This approach makes our systems very durable, fitting with the circular economy model: systems that we built 30 years ago are still functioning efficiently.
Read the full article in our latest issue here
