It is 1985 and Elio Bregoli together with his wife Antonella decides to found IB and does so on the basis of his great passion and the high level of expertise he has developed in the tapware sector. A dream that was born very early, in his father’s garage, where as a boy Elio experimented with metal and began to imagine. He grew up in the Brescia area, in Val Trompia, also known as the iron route, due to its centuriesold history of craftsmanship and industry. This valley is also a land marked by the relationship and coexistence with water, lakes and rivers, which have marked the history and identity of the area. These elements characterise Elio’s training and are united in his passion for transforming brass, his favourite material, which he puts at the service of flowing water with his almost sculptural creations. This dream grows with Elio, and not only, because over the years the family business is joined by his sons, Andrea and Davide, who could not be more different in appearance and character, but who together and in a complementary manner carry on IB in continuity with those original and most important values that moved Elio and Antonella from day one: humility, dependability and transparency. Today IB remains a proudly family-run company that boasts totally in-house processing and production for every single component, from the raw material to the most particular finishes. A company with strong ties to its territory and its craft traditions, of which it is an ambassador throughout the world, thanks to its presence in 65 countries, in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia.
ANDREA BREGOLI, OWNER OF THE COMPANY TOGETHER WITH HIS BROTHER DAVIDE, TOLD PLATFORM ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF IB.
One of your peculiarities and also one of your greatest assets is your recognisability, the identity that deeply characterises IB, its history and its products. Behind the new logo and the new company name, We are IB, there is a beautiful story.
Andrea Bregoli | Yes, certainly the company, and then consequently our products, have their own recognisability, a strong identity, which is not limited to what we produce, i.e. taps and fittings. First of all, because IB was born in this sector, but then broadened its horizons: today we produce everything in the bathroom, the kitchen or outdoors that is made of metal or carries water. We produce taps, accessories and shower components for the wellness sector and the outdoors. What’s more, this is because IB is the team that makes it up, from the designer who imagines the lines of our products, to the technicians and craftsmen who make them concrete, to my brother and me who today, thanks to our parents’ work, carry on the company. WE ARE IB is an idea that was born at a particularly difficult time for everyone, namely 2020: in March we found ourselves worried because of the uncertainty and the many problems that the pandemic has caused. Then we realised that our company, IB, was more characterised and also represented by us, by all the people who make it up, rather than by the word taps, which seemed reductive compared to what we are. We are IB. The new name therefore stems from our concept of family, which includes not just us, myself, my brother and my parents, but all the 65 people who are part of the company and who work with us every day to carry forward those values and objectives in which we all recognise ourselves through, of course, our products, which are the concretisation of our studies and research.
Over the years, you have put a lot of effort into research and development to make your production totally in-house. How does this choice differentiate you and is it reflected in your products?
A.B.: By producing our products in their entirety, we enjoy total autonomy, greater speed and flexibility in production. It also guarantees us total quality control from the raw material used through to the finish. We were among the first and still remain among the very few in Italy to have adopted trivalent chromium: the use of hexavalent chromium is not differential in terms of the finished product, but it is highly impactful and dangerous during product processing both for environmental pollution and for the safety of workers. So we made a strong commitment to converting our production from the outset, precisely because for us We are IB is not just a new logo but our ideal. We prefer and choose to use real gold, which we make more resistant thanks to research and innovation into Nano3 treatments, a nanotechnology that uses an extra galvanic step, rather than similar materials treated with PVD. We produce all our finishes in-house: this allows us to approach the bathroom or kitchen project as a unicum, providing the architecture studio we work with with the possibility of furnishing the rooms with the same finish. This is why we are always striving to expand our range beyond taps, with shower heads, accessories, and shower complements. There are 20 catalogue finishes, and they can be further expanded because we offer the possibility of custom finishes starting from the design that the designer makes of the bathroom or kitchen environment. Our focus is to respond to a need, to solve the challenge that the project poses in order to exactly create the architect’s idea and above all to meet the needs of those who will live in that space.
What new things are you working on?
A.B.: This year we are introducing steel into the catalogue for the first time. This choice stems, as often happens to us, from the needs and requests of architecture studios, which, more than customers, are real partners for us. Moreover, in terms of production, the introduction of this material entails very few adjustments to our machinery, with which we currently work brass, which is a much harder metal than steel. The challenge is to deal with this new material while managing to combine it according to our identity. In order to do this, we relied on Osmo design, which has been in charge of our art direction for 10 years, and was therefore able almost naturally to give us new steel series that represented IB and were entirely our own. Thus, 316 Program was born, with two distinct collections within it, Totem and Cake. Another new element we are very enthusiastic about is C67, the first brass tapware collection certified Carbon Footprint Zero. The line was designed by the architect Carlo Colombo who managed, while maintaining the distinctive and iconic features of the tap, to give it a new, human interpretation with distinctive details and a unique aesthetic.
For more information visit:
