As defined by current Italian legislation, "Centenary Companies" are considered all Companies (industrial, commercial, agricultural, manufacturing or service creators) operating in Italy. These Companies must have operated on the market continuously and verified for more than a hundred years with entrepreneurship inspired by ethical behavior, a strong focus on the community of reference and a spirit of innovation capable of generating new knowledge.

The Italian Centenary Companies Association (“Unione Imprese Centenarie Italiane”), which encompasses ultra-centenary companies with a solid and prestigious background, is animated by a strong cultural inspiration, capitalising on the commercial expertise of each single member of the Association. 

The Association was born in 2000 on the initiative of Franco Torrini and Eugenio Alphandery, who regrouped eleven historical companies from Florence and established the “Associazione Imprese Storiche fiorentine” in Palazzo Vecchio. Six years later, AISF welcomed other ultra-centenary members from Tuscany, thus changing its denomination and becoming the “Unione Imprese Storiche Toscane”. In February 2012, it became the “Unione Imprese Storiche Italiane”, a national-level reality whose associates represent most of the Italian regions. From 2019 it is called "Unione Imprese Centenarie Italiane".

This is the past, present and future of Italy, a country that projects itself into tomorrow by relying on the historic brands that are part of the Association and by moving the vectors of productivity and economy in an open-ended, constantly shifting context.

The ultra-centenary brands belonging to the Association represent the most sincere expression of entrepreneurial quality and the force of a tradition that is rooted in the territory but  nourished by a constantly-renewing spirit of innovation.

Centrifugal impulses from every corner of Italy have crossed national borders as the highest expression of the originality that is typical of Made in Italy products.

The common denominator of the more than a century-old brands that make up the association is the illustrious debt they owe to the past and the conspicuous asset they can claim in the future. The debt is the significant tradition that urge us to encourage new efforts in terms of enterprise; the credit is an open wager on the future and the acceptance of the infinite challenges it poses, a challenge already accepted and already won in the past.