Company

Ithel’s story began in the 1980s, when its founder, Henrico Locatelli, decided to return from Belgium, where he lived and managed the country’s traffic light network, to his homeland in Friuli. A terrible earthquake had just struck the region, and Henrico was determined to contribute his experience as an electrician in the effort to rebuild his land.

For several years, his work proceeded thanks to contracts received from other companies. His work as an electrician was his primary and most important occupation. But a turning point was on the horizon. The telephony market was liberalised in the early 1990s, which broke open the markets’ accumulated demand.

Henrico Locatelli realised there was an opportunity and took it. Those were the years when his son David, now Ithel’s Director, began to accompany Henrico on the job. In 1991, the pair went to South Tyrol for the first time. They had a contract to install a telephone network for the local Carabinieri force. They did the job so well that it brought continuous business from the client.

Two years later, in 1993, father and son moved to South Tyrol. Work was plentiful there, and the pair decided to open a new branch in the data network sector. The quality of work and the ability to forge important relationships led Henrico and his son to work for some of the most important companies in the area. These included the company that would become Röchling, with whom they enjoyed a long-lasting working relationship.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the company approached the video surveillance market and installed its first systems. The experience accumulated in this area opened up another significant opportunity: collaborating on cableway installations. The first of these was the Merano 2000 system. The experience acquired in this area is such that, today, 70% of the contracts delivered concern installing intelligent and integrated cableway systems and other mobility installations such as metros and people-mover systems.