Tonutti S.p.A., a World renown manufacturer of machinery for the hay and forage sector, has today formalised the acquisition of 30% of Storti International, a leader in the production of mixer wagons and telescopic handlers.

Tonutti's involvement in Storti International comes as a new page in the expansion of the Tonutti Group that follows the acquisition in 2007 of Wolagri, an important Italian manufacturer of balers and wrappers.

This operation paves the way toward a new and exiting phase of growth for both companies in the years to come, thanks to the two manufacturing facilities in Russia and in China and to the two large distribution centres in the U.S. and in France, all fully operated and owned by Tonutti and Storti.

"We are very satisfied with this result," says the President and CEO of the Tonutti Group Carlo Tonutti. "With this operation, our strategy of industrial consolidation has made a further step forward, strengthening our position on the global market, enhancing and broadly widening our cross-selling capabilities, allowing the Group to grow in size and to offer a complete and high quality product range".

"With this initiative", continues Tonutti, "the Tonutti Group challenges the crisis with new investments and lays the foundations for a strong collaboration that, not only is marked by its wide product offering, but particularly distinguishes itself for its strong presence in those markets that have the greatest potential for growth".

The CEO of Storti, Carlo Scirpo, considers this solid alliance important because it gives the opportunity to Storti to rapidly enter markets such as Russia and the U.S. thanks to the well established Tonutti sales and manufacturing organisations there. "Furthermore, with this agreement, our distribution network reaches a truly remarkable level of global market presence that will allow us to be even more effective in our sales operations with the products that each market requires".

The new conglomerate counts over 500 employees worldwide and total 2008 sales of over 75 million Euros.