In 1945, a young man, Adolfo Rostan, started his own business as a goldsmith and engraver in Turin. His skills rapidly make him acquire notoriety in town. In 1950, Ceat, the local tire manufacturer, contacted him for the engraving of the sidewall plates of some of their tiremolds. No one had yet met the quality requirements of Ceat. Adolfo took the challenge. For many days, he worked the steel by hand, alone. The result was so pleasing for the customer that quickly he became the official supplier of the company. Tiremolds appeared as a very promising business at the time. The demand was high, and very few competitors could match the capacity of Rostan, that gradually started to equip his laboratory and to produce complete moulds.
A young Adolfo Rostan with the fruit of his labour
The company starts to grow and to serve new customers, from Italy, like Pirelli, and from the world. One of the first international partnership starts in the sixties with Firestone. Rostan started then the production of truck and agricultural molds. In 1962, the company moves from Turin, Rivoli, in the seat that it still occupies nowadays. The new plant grants an increase of the productive capacity and move Rostan at the edge of industry.
The company’s seat, built in 1962
Rostan workshop in the ‘70s
In the seventies the portfolio of international customers keeps increasing, among the others we could cite Semperit, Unirolyal and Continental. In the eighties, the company starts to build the foundations of its future. Investments are made in all fields. Rostan pioneered CAD design and NC manufacturing; some internally designed solutions deserved even a patent. Growing requests generated the need for a second plant, opened in 1985. Many new young employees are hired. They grew in the company and most of them are still there, creating a strong and highly skilled workforce. In the nineties Rostan keeps its track of technological improvement and increase of the customer base. The partnership with Bridgestone USA starts in these years.
First steps in CAD
The second facility, opened in 1985
In 1996, Rostan celebrates fifty years in the business, by that time almost all the most important tire manufacturers became customers and the company had lived all the stages of the technological evolution of its sector. From the hands of its courageous founder to the computers of its competent designers. In 1999, Adolfo Rostan died and his heirs kept the company on the same path. Technological evolution is the core. In 2001 Rostan becomes an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer and keeps to invest in new technology in order to reduce delivery time and production costs while improving the final quality. The financial crisis of the last years hit hard on Rostan, that could keep in satisfying its customers thanks to the courage and will of the property and of the workers. Today, in 2015, the company celebrates seventy years in the tiremolds business. It was an incredible journey, and we still got a long way to go…
A mold in its container during the ‘90s
An agricultural mold from the ‘50s
Rostan Vintage Pictures
Rostan Tiremolds S.r.l.
Via Biella 64, 10098 Rivoli (TO) Italia
tel +39 011 417 99 65
VAT N. 11656350011
