La Metallurgica created the first aluminium tube for Mutti's tomato concentrate in 1951. 

1951 is a cardinal year for La Metallurgica. After just four years of activity, the increase was so important that it became necessary yo move the business to a new factory.

But this year is reminded as great thanks to an innovation that make an unexpected development and gave an incredible success in the food industry.

In cooperation with Mutti society we create the first aluminium tube for food industry worldwide, in particular for the tomato concentrate. It was called “the thimble tube”, because instead of the cap there was a screwed thimble.

In 1951 the industry form Parma introduce for the first time on the market tomato concentrate in a tube (format that, up to that time, was intended for tooth paste only), which represent a real revolution to the conservation of the product; a great success that still last today.

The Story Of How Did The Tube Concentrate Born. (Extract form the Mutti's History)

..It's hard for the Sale Representative to get a first appointment in the office: Muttis don't have time to waste for them, they prefer to talk straight with the owner. So they go to see their establishments, to congratulate them for the implementation of new technologies; they verify their process and they decide they are trustable.

Because a supplier is somehow someone who you entrust part of you job, you can't risk, especially if you bet it all on a product. 1951 comes as a gunshot: the fast increase, ideas to join and that tube sample, which arrived somehow form Switzerland, saying that maybe it can contain concentrate, if the tomato acid doesn't damage it.

This small complication doesn't stop the enterprise. An experiment was made: they spread on the inside of the aluminium an epoxy resin that make a thin layer between the product and its container. It worked. Ugo Mutti, who was before extremely passionate of motorcycles, now commits himself completely to the business and he can see the advantage of such innovation. Better conservation of the product, better use, practicality and bigger refill.

The appointment of the owners of the two companies (Mutti and La Metallurgica) happen in a bar in front of Milan central train station, which at the time still a small parlour of the business growing city.

Carlo Bianchi of La Metallurgica happily agreed with Ugo Mutti to meet up in that place: a honest talk and then everyone gets back to their job. With them a son and a nephew. Bianchi's son, Luigi, nine years old, and Francesco Mutti's son, Marcello, eleven: both dressed with shorts, white socks, blue sandals and shirt.

Straight and proud, Ugo explain to the La Metallurgica owner his necessity: “I've got these thimbles as cap, we need to make tubes which are suitable for them”. Bianchi, who knows a lot about aluminium extrusion, listen to the idea and decide to try it: no one had used an aluminium tube for food yet and if it works, the market would blow up.

QThose kids, future managing director of the respective enterprises, play and eat ice creams, while the adults make business.
On those steal tables, in front of the street, where green trams made of wood and iron are quickly overtaken by Lancia B20s and Fiat Topolinos, they make the deal. A look in the eyes, a handshake. Nothing else is required in 1951 to make an agreement that will last in time, with mutual loyalty and advantage.

Then everyone on his own way: a businessman seeking how to put a thimble as cap on his tube, the other caring about a tomato which is already the best on the market