Breton

Breton's origins are rooted in a background of innovations and ideas all exemplifying outside the box thinking. The company's journey started on 26 January 1963 in Castello di Godego (Treviso): this was the birth of Brevetti Toncelli S.p.A., originally operating exclusively in the design and production of machines for processing natural stone. The company, which was then to become Bre-ton and later Breton, immediately started developing new processes to improve the operating performance of its customers. Marcello Toncelli typifies the Italian entrepreneurial spirit that can create a business organisation from a brilliant intuition. He seeks an innovative path in the boom years: one unexplored sector was that of flooring, and the company started experimenting with marble. This is the turning point: there were no marble sawing machines at the time, so the need was transformed into an idea. He created the first industrial polishing process for natural stone slabs and tiles; up to the creation of a new material in marble and resin agglomerate. As a pioneer, he had anticipated the future with an industrial stone product that could be made using quarry waste: this marked the birth of BretonStone® technology. Thanks to the substantial contribution to the local economy, Marcello Toncelli was made an honorary citizen of Castello di Godego, site of Breton's headquarters. He was subsequently awarded the honorary title of Cavaliere del Lavoro by the President of the Italian Republic. Among other awards, he was appointed Honorary Member of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences of Moscow and Honorary Scholar of the Saint Petersburg International School of Science. He was then made an honorary citizen of Le Soeur, Minnesota (USA), where one of Breton's most important customers has its headquarters. Since 2000 the company has been headed by the second generation of the Toncelli family: Luca and Dario. The board of directors also includes Roberto Chiavacci, deputy chairman and the founder's historic partner. Thanks to the far sighted vision of founder partner Marcello Toncelli, Breton created a sector that was unexplored at the time: construction of agglomerate and engineered stone manufacturing plants. A prodigious capacity for innovation allowed Breton to grow rapidly to become a top tier company in just a few years, gradually ascending to a position of leadership on the world market. Cav. Toncelli's vision produces ever greater success: he understood that the future would be a sustainable stone product with high mechanical and aesthetic properties: not present in the natural world, but capable of dominating the architectural field. The first BretonStone plant for manufacture of small quartz-resin slabs was unveiled in 1982. In 1984 the first BretonStone BB300 plant started producing large marble-resin blocks. Subsequently, 1986 saw the conception and development of the BretonStone BL300 plant for the production of large quartz-resin slabs.