We are books’ manufacturers

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L.E.G.O. was founded in 1900 as a small artisan workshop on the initiative of Pietro Olivotto. Since then, five generations of entrepreneurs have succeeded each other by renewing and adapting the company to a rapidly evolving market.

Today L.E.G.O. is one of the leading European producers of quality books. The operating divisions can offer the entire production cycle in-house providing the market with reliability and speed of production.

OUR SERVICES

We love what we do and we do it with passion

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Prepress

File check, engraving of printing plates and all processes preceding the print production cycle

library_books

Sampling

On request we can hand make prototypes to the final product specification

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Offset printing

A range of offset printing machines capable of reproducing colour accurately

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Finishing

Finishing processes to enrich the products with your own personal touch

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Bookbinding

Guillotining, folding, gathering, sewing and all the operations necessary to produce any type of book

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Logistics and Transportation

An organization capable of handling over 5,000 shipments per year totalling some 42,000 tons of books

OUR PRODUCTION SITES

We are strongly linked to the territory

Stabilimento L.E.G.O. di Vicenza

Vicenza

The headquarters are located in Vicenza with this plant housing the sheet fed offset presses as well as one of the most complete binderies in Europe.

Stabilimento L.E.G.O. di Lavis (TN)

Lavis

The Lavis plant houses web offset presses, binding lines for the production of paperback books and an automated warehouse for paper handling.

OUR HISTORY

More than one hundred years of experience is the guarantee we give

The foundation

After working as a bookbinder at the Raschi printing house in Vicenza, in 1900 Pietro Olivotto started his own business assisted by his wife Vittoria. This craft bindery becomes the origin of the family business.

In 1920 Giovanni, Pietro’s son, joined the company with his wife Maria. The small bindery gradually introduces the mechanization of production and begins its transformation. In the late 1930’s, the L.E.G.O. factory employed around 150 people.

In 1940 Piero, Giovanni’s son, starts his collaboration in the company. He helps to rebuild the factory after it was damaged by a bombing raid during World War II and sets the stage for future expansion by developing the commercial structure.

Insegna sede L.E.G.O. di Via Soccorso Soccorsetto a Vicenza (1922)
Posa prima pietra della sede L.E.G.O. in zona

The expansion

In the 1950’s it became clear there was a need to build a new plant in Vicenza. Construction work began on the 15th December 1956 and ended in 1958. Between 1963 and 1964 the production plant and warehouses built in the previous years were doubled in size. Following this between 1967 and 1968 they doubled in size a second time.

This period of exponential expansion directly reflected the improving economic conditions in Italy during the 1960s. With a booming real estate market, products such as encyclopedias also boomed, becoming an essential part of Italian homes and a symbol of economic wealth.

Opening up to the international market

In 1970 Giulio Olivotto, son of Piero, joined the company to learn the family trade.
In December 1975, at the suggestion of his father, he founded a commercial office in England to expand the market beyond national borders. In a short time, L.E.G.O. opened representations all over Europe and a process of diversification began in terms of both markets and products.
The increase in sales activities led the company to exceed 1,000 employees and to become the most important Italian bookbinder and one of the largest in Europe.

Growth in volumes also encouraged innovation. The American engineer Peter de Florez had designed and built in the United States a casing-in machine for very thin books: Giulio bought the drawings of some details and brought the idea to the company. Talented designers and mechanics began the development of the “L.E.G.O. 300”, the fastest line ever built for thin books.

The “fast line”, as it is familiarly called in the company, was a machine that led to an important increase in production capacity: in the mid-1980s, the foreign market as a whole represented more than 80% of turnover. It also led to L.E.G.O. integrating its binding abilities with a printing service.

Reparto produzione L.E.G.O. sede di Vicenza (1971)
Reparto produzione L.E.G.O. sede di Vicenza (1971)
Dettaglio macchina da stampa offset rotativa

The acquisitions

The decades 1990-2010 saw the beginning of a period of acquisitions that allowed the company to integrate the production process.

After the introduction of the sheet fed color business, the development continued with the acquisition of a Timson’s press, a device that over the years almost completely replaced the sheet fed machines used for printing single-color books.

In this period, prepress took its first steps towards digitization, too: in the new plant in Lavis, in the North of Trento, a CTP Misomex device dedicated to the printing of books was installed. The building was also the site of an automated warehouse able to store 14,000 tons of paper in 8,300 pallets and a department dedicated to short runs that produced black and white/color paperback with ink-jet technology.

The family tradition continued with Giulio’s daughter, Rosa, joining the company in 1997 followed by his son Giovanni in 2001. In 2003, L.E.G.O. added the production of calendars, postcards, and tourist guides to it’s capabilities and in 2006 acquired the skills to print art books.

The technological advance

In 2010, the plant in Lavis installed its first Timsons 4-colour press, followed by a second in 2013 and a third in 2019. In January 2016, a “Komori Lithrone G840P” was installed at the Vicenza plant, capable of printing 4+4 colors in 70×100 cm format. The use of H-UV inks and UV lamps allows the ink to remain on the surface, obtaining greater brilliance and intensity of colors. In Vicenza, a “Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 162” (4+4 colors in 120×160 cm format) was installed in January 2017, followed by a second one in the second half of 2020.

Macchine da stampa offset a foglio
Move forward

Investing and innovating

In 2020 L.E.G.O. introduced empowerment programs dedicated to increasing book culture throughout the Group. The goal is to ensure an organized and efficient management structure, which can support and enhance the team, maintain high product quality and offer a service of excellence externally.
Today the L.E.G.O. Group aims to expand its business by developing new markets and to continue its tradition of innovation.

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