Valsella Meccanotecnica

Valsella Meccanotecnica SpA (also known as Valsella) was one of Italy's largest manufacturers of land mines. The Company's headquarters initially were in Montichiari. It had two production plants in Castenedolo near Brescia, Italy. The three companies of Valsella, Tecnovar Italiana SpA, and Misar SpA (both the latter started by former Valsella employees) together were the centre of Italian mine production.

Valsella ceased production of mines in 1994 due to the Italian Government's moratorium on production of anti-personnel mines. In 1999, prior to bankruptcy, it moved to complete civil production of engineering and vehicle projects. It ceased to be a separate company in 2005.

Valsella was formed in 1969-1970 by Brescia-based entrepreneurs, Francesco Rena and Antonio De Cristofano, with ties to the Italian Ministry of Defence and the Redon Trust, a Schaan, Liechtenstein based company of which one of the Valsella founders, Cristofano, was an attorney. In 1980 Valsella Meccanotecnica Spa was formed from the two companies, Valsella SpA and Meccano Tecnica MT SpA. Meccano Tecnica was a company, based in Castenedolo, that produced furniture, chairs and plastic containers especially for televisions. Meccano Tecnica was founded in 1962 but put into liquidation in 1979 just prior to its joining with Valsella. Meccano Tecnica was 50% owned by the Redon Trust.

Valsella owned 50% of a Milan-Rome company, Valtec, which was responsible for sales, and 32.4% ownership of Motomar, a Milan-based manufacturer of marine motors. Overall, Valsella, via the Redon Trust was controlled by a Swiss-based Italian, Paolo Jasson resident in Collina d'Oro, Switzerland until the arrival of Fiat in 1984.

In 1971, Valsella Sud Srl, located in Bari, was formed and sold to a former Valsella employee, Ludovico Fontana, and renamed to Tecnovar Italiana SpA. In 1993 the then owner, Vito Alfieri Fontana (who inherited the business) had concerns as to the impact of his business as a mine manufacturer. He started a program of restructuring the company away from certain weapons, and in 1997 shut the company.

In 1976, following a legal dispute, the Valsella founder, Francesco Rena, resigned from Valsella and joined Società esplosivi industriali SpA (SEI), the company that Valsella used to fill their mines with explosives.

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