Efisio Peretto, the foundations of Ergotech

Cfm instructor in Olivetti, he set up his own business and worked on the prototyping of computing machines such as Divisumma 28

SETTMO VITTONE. The marked dexterity, the almost obsession with meticulous work, the generosity in undertaking, the coexistence in a completely Canavese mix between the attitude to innovation and the little interest in personal protagonism: local ingredients that the twentieth-century parable of Olivetti has before implemented and then dropped on the territory, free to take root in many forms.

This is the case of Efisio Peretto di Settimo Vittone – born in 1935, peasant origins, generously equipped with curiosity and skilled hands – who joined Olivetti at the age of 14 and left at the beginning of the 1970s with the ambition of starting his own business. First a student and then an instructor at the Cfm (Mechanics Training Center), Peretto knew the particular atmosphere that reigned in the Ivrea company under the directives of Adriano Olivetti and developed a passion for technical innovation and an aptitude for training young people. . Features that would never abandon it.

The choice to set up on one’s own took place in a period of profound social tensions, in which the climate inside and outside the factory was no longer the same, and was therefore more instinctive than conscious. He pushed him to a leap into the void, which instead was not empty: his mechanical workshop – the foundations of the future Ergotech – opened in the village and dedicated himself to the first metal carpentry works. Thanks to his experience and his knowledge, moreover, he was able to engage very early in the manual prototyping of Olivetti calculation machines, such as the Divisumma 28 designed by Mario Bellini.

Efisio Peretto understood almost immediately that the future of his company would be plastic, even independently of the collaboration with Olivetti: he printed, for example, plastic knobs for drafting machines, with the farsighted idea of ​​diversifying production. Operational entrepreneur, with more technical than commercial qualities, with a strong character who knew how to turn on without prejudice and turn off without rancor, he was finally liked by everyone. The formative dimension also fascinated him in the Eighties, already Ergotech was born, testified by the collaborations with the schools of the Itis and Ciac territory. It was now the time of Cristiana and Andrea, the children who joined Ergotech to make it what it is today: one of the most important companies in the Canavese area, with 180 employees, plus two factories abroad respectively in Tunisia and China, a very high degree of automation and a production of over 100 million thermoplastic components per year, mainly for the automotive sector.