To celebrate the 150 years of our brand, a cultural initiative has been organised with focus on the publication of a series of three volumes edited by OEMME Venice: LECHLER. CHRONICLES OF A BRAND

The first volume of the series is titled “Paints and Coatings since 1858”. It is launched today in Como in a crowded meeting room in the Unione Industriali Headquarters.
The next two volumes of the series will both be published in 2010, the year of the celebration of the independent Italian Company birth.

The author of the volume, dr Agop Manoukian, President of Lechler S.p.A., left the role of manager and wore the habitual and congenial role of sociology professor, involving all the Company internal structures in the definition of the editorial project, the scientific consultancy and in the realisation of the volume.

dr. Aram Manoukian, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, who strongly supported this initiative, opened the meeting by stressing the importance of the Company values and brand which have involved thousand of people in this long history, cooperating in different levels and thus allowing the successful pursuing of the new generations.

Dr. Minoli, Federchimica communication manager, held the debate, by tickling dr. Agop Manoukian in a suggestive tale which started from the historical and sociological research made with a scientific precision. Then with the telling of some re-discovered events for which it is emerged the natural possibility to compare them to general values of cultural enterprise, concentrating them in the XIXth Century, with the great development of the German chemistry and the birth of the Italian industry.

The most important moment of the presentation was centred in the revelation from the author of the enigma concerning the correct interpretation of the historical superscription “Chr. Lechler e figlio successori”.
Until now it was explained as the representation of a dynastic property centred on the name of its founder, the pharmacist and chemical Christian Lechler and his hypothetical successors. The result of the historical research brought the correct interpretation of this singular logo, to be read as the Successors of Christian and Paul Lechler.
It is true that these successors do not belong to the family but they are two managers who worked hard in the Company and only after twenty years from the Company foundation they were given the Company Property and Management as a gift thus succeeding the couple Lechler father and son. This event also occurred when the Italian subsidiary of the German Company was passed to three young Italian Managers who became the other successors.

Another discussed subject was the brand competition. dr Agop, quoting the French historian Paul Veyne, spoke about a real “plot” which has seen a series of Companies on the coatings market contending for the name Lechler. After several disputes, only in the last years a series of merging and company transformations which involved the various “competitors” brought the Italian Company as the only coatings producer in the market with Lechler superscription and brand.

Another passionate intervention was made by prof. Paletta, Director of Centro per la Cultura d’Impresa (Company Culture Centre), who underlined the subject related to ”the spirit of the Company”, a concept which today is known as brand value, through a steady similarity between the Lechler brand evolution till these days and the dynamic of the Company transmission among the generations.

The President of the Unione Industriali, dr Ambrogio Taborelli, closed the meeting by talking about the Company values, by thanking Aram and Agop Manoukian for the fact that Lechler Company has always given their contribution to the image of Como industry in the world and by giving them a celebration identification.