Company

FACMA S.R.L. activity deals with the design, construction and sale of agricultural machines for the ground working, for the mechanized harvest of shell fruits from the ground, for the drying, selection and storing of products in wood shell.
The administrative and operative seat is located in Vitorchiano (VT) Italy, the company owns a covered warehouse of about 5000 square meters, and a surrounding area of more or less 1 hectare.
The origins of FACMA date back to 1971. The company has developed in Viterbo territory, which has always been characterized by the hazelnuts and chestnuts cultivation.
The idea of building the first harvesting machine, trailed by a tractor, was born in 1971, thanks to the intuition of Marcello Bellachioma, at that time mechanical worker, who together with his brother Renzo succeeded to revolutionize the hazelnuts harvest, introducing the mechanization. In the ’70 years  many people in the province were trying to automatize that operation, which was carried on totally by hands, so there was a challenge context which had as a result the success of the above mentioned machine. The two founders started the activity in Vitorchiano, as an individual enterprise “ Officina meccanica Bellachioma Marcello & C.”, initially supported by another local company with more experience in agricultural mechanics (Aquilanti company).
This machine (called Cimina) worked thanks to the principle of aspiration of the product from the ground; once inside the machine, it was separated by impurities and sent into bags. The original system has inspired the following models of harvesters.
In the ’80 years the reference market, from the original province of Viterbo, has extended to the biggest agricultural areas of Italy cultivated with hazelnuts, thanks to the constitution of a network of dealers, still today valid partners.
In 1985 the F.A.C.M.A. SNC was founded, artisan company which name is the acronym of Artisan Factory for Agricultural Machines Construction.
In the following years, the innovation push of the founders took to the realization of other types of agricultural machines, enriching always more the products range. First of all the mulchers were introduced (shredders, flail mowers) for the ground preparation (cutting of grass, rest of pruning, stones), also them between the first models of this kind in Italy, invented to prepare and level the ground for the mechanized harvest. Later, they introduced the post-harvest systems, initially finalized to the selection, drying and storage of hazelnuts, then adapted for other shell wood fruits (walnuts, almonds, chestnuts, macadamias, etc.). At the same time the harvesting machines, originally conceived for hazelnuts, were adapted also for the harvest of other shell fruits (chestnuts, walnuts, almonds, coffee, macadamias, pecan nuts, etc.).
The 1993 has been an important year because it has been designed and built the first self-propelled harvester, capable to move autonomously without the tractor’s help and permitting to only one worker to carry on the whole harvest, whereas with the trailed harvester the job of 4-5 workers was necessary.
In 1995 the self-propelled harvester has been exposed to section News of EIMA (International Exposition of Agricultural Machines, Italy), fair promoted by UNACOMA (National Union of Agricultural machines Construction) and organized in collaboration with BolognaFiere Spa.
Until those years the relationships with foreign countries had developed in direct sales to the final customer; from 1995 it began the process of constitution of a foreign sale network, starting from Spain with the sale of harvesting machines for almonds, and then of mulchers and harvesting machines for olives. In 2000 the company started to collaborate with an agent and some dealers in France, for the sale of machines for hazelnuts and chestnuts harvest. In 2002 the multinational corporation Ferrero contacted Facma to buy agricultural machines destined to their hazelnuts farm located in Chile. In 2004 the direct sale of mulchers in South Africa began.
In 2005 the firm passed from artisan company to industrial company and it became FACMA S.R.L.
In 2008, considering the growing potentialities of the Chilean market, the branch Comercial Facma Chile Ltda, was founded in Linares – Chile, for the sale and service of Facma machines.
In 2009 the pruning picker-up shredder, called Comby, has been invented and patented, with excellent performances in the harvest and crumbling of pruning residues. 
In 2011 the company introduced in its product range also machines with a totally mechanical harvesting principle: the MEK1800, for small surfaces, applied to the tractor lifter; the SEMEK1000, for big surfaces with maximum harvesting performances. To arrive then to the year 2013, when the mechanical gatherer applicable the aspiration self-propelled harvester has been patented.
FACMA sells directly in the province of Viterbo and collaborates with authorized dealers in the rest of Italy and other countries in the world, who deal with the research of potential customers, local communication and promotion (fairs and advertising), negotiation with customers, orders, service and assistance to machines, precautionary and in the field.
The company actually realizes about the 50% of its sales volume abroad, thanks to a network of dealers in different countries (own branch in Chile, SouthAfrica, France, Spain, Portugal, Croazia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Georgia, Moldavia, Argentina, Colombia, U.S.A., etc.)

MISSION
FACMA mission is to follow the idea of a modern and specialized agriculture, proposing a mechanization which is near to the exigencies of the growers. The designed agricultural machines, before being introduced in the market, are tested in the agricultural farms of the Facma owners (hazelnuts orchards in province of Viterbo and Roma – Italy, Chile and Romania) until obtaining the desired results.

Between the values at the base of the company culture we can certainly enumerate the environment respect: the introduced machines never upset the natural equilibrium, they rather are perfectly respondent to the exigencies of organic farms.

CHRONICLE

1971:Individual Artisan Firm “Bellachioma Marcello” birth; sale of Trailed Harvesters first models.
1984: start and following development of the sale network in Viterbo province and in Italy.
1985: FACMA S.n.c. birth
1995: patent on the frontal brushes of the Self-propelled Harvesters, homologation of the Self-propelled Harvester; exhibition of the Self-propelled Harvester in the news sector of EIMA fair in Bologna.
1996: CONAMA certification of the Trailed Harvester Cimina 200.
1997: start and following development of the sale network in Spain and France.
2001: ENAMA certification of the Self-propelled Harvester Cimina 300;
          ENAMA certification of the Mulcher TR 180 BPEL.
2004: first sales in South African Republic.
2005: transformation in FACMA S.R.L.
2008: Comercial Facma Chile birth, for the sales in the Chilean market, FACMA S.R.L. is a sponsor of the 7° International Congress on hazelnuts in Viterbo.
2009: patent on the Pruning picker – up Shredder Comby, registration of the European and International brand FACMA, first sales in Croatia and Australia.
2010: Hydrostatic tractor TRIFRUT 85 HP, technical innovation EIMA 2010, exposition at EIMA  news sector and patent (Video)
2011: introduction of mechanical self-propelled harvester SEMEK1000 and harvester MEK1800.
2012: first sales in Georgia
2013: patent on the mechanical gatherer applied on aspiration self-propelled harvesters; AiiAI3 (Italian Society of Agricultural Engineering) prize to Marcello and Renzo Bellachioma for the contribution given to the development and innovation in agrarian mechanics.
2015: first sales in Bulgaria and Moldavia
2017: Intesa San Paolo bank prize “Promote the excellence to sustain the growth”