Obituary

A real entrepreneur, a charismatic leader, a genuine man with a great heart and an icon to the world of textile machines.

The first thing that struck anybody who met or knew Tiberio Lonati was his charismatic charm combined with a natural humility and his spontaneously warm friendliness.

He always remained faithful to his father's ‘Golden Rule’ of being ‘humble in learning and proud in working’.

In his strong and remarkable personality he combined especially two conspicuous and yet contradictory features:

On the one hand an unbending determination and will to realise his worthy ambitions and visions, sometimes exploding in furious bouts of temper and impatience, but on the other hand he showed a human compassion and warm empathy towards his fellow man and woman, from all social standings and avenues of life, and in any of the many parts of the world he frequented so often throughout his life.

Likewise he had a formidable sense of duty and total dedication to his work and at the same time a joy of living that was contagious.  He had a special taste and talent for teasing people particularly those he cared for most among his friends and collaborators; and at the same time, a sincere sense of gratitude and praise to anyone who accomplished a good deed in general or a good job for his enterprise. 

He was a fine and strong-willed  ‘Fighter’ but, one who would use to such  a singular extent his wisdom of the heart,  his nobility of the soul, and his courageous desire to envisage and invest in the future.  To such an extent that all those who worked with him were invariably filled with admiration, respect, gratitude, and affection for him.

He was a splendid host and knew how to welcome and entertain his guests and customers with a especially personal hospitality.  He managed to combine friendly spontaneous warmth with a grand style in classical Italian good taste in the most easy going way, so making his guests completely at ease wherever and whenever he entertained them at home or abroad.  He had that natural spontaneity and jovial vitality that conquered his guests from whichever part of the world they came from.

He was born in Brescia in 1944 the third and youngest of the three sons of Francesco Lonati - the sober, severe and brilliant self-made man who, from scratch, at the Reconstruction of Italy after World War II, founded this dynasty with a factory making hosiery knitting machines, the Lonati Company, that has become the world leader in the field of socks and hosiery machines.  This original function is still at the core of the now powerful and world famous Lonati Group.

In this remarkably successful venture, all three sons (Ettore, Fausto and Tiberio) gave their respectively distinct contribution of talent, personality and sacrifices.  In their combined efforts all three were always bonded together in a solid brotherly team of intensely reciprocated affection and esteem.

Tiberio, straight out of school, started working in his father's factory absorbing all the elements of machine design, technology and serial production.  Seeing the Company's growing expansion abroad, he soon decided at 19 years of age to spend some years in Germany and England to perfect his languages while at the same time following the development of these important markets for his company.  Upon his return home to settle back in Brescia he was assigned the commercial management of the Company and with his personality, his gift for languages and his understanding of the world both inside and outside Italy, he gave a formidable additional boost to the International world-wide commercial expansion and reputation of the company.

However Tiberio always wanted to distinguish himself and somehow prove he had the ‘metal’ to make his own way forward.  So when the Lonati family bought one of the oldest Italian hosiery machine makers in Brescia, the Santoni Company, he was delighted to be given the full responsibility of running it.  He practically re-invented it by making Santoni the leader of a new field in circular knitting called "Seamless".

It was a long struggle but he had such a vision and determination to realise it that even when his family did not consider it wise to continue backing that new side of the venture that seemed to have little hope, he risked it on his own and made a success of it to the great pride and pleasure of his father and brothers, and to the great enhancement of the whole Group.  So, while the Lonati company had undoubtedly become the world leaders in socks and hosiery machines, Santoni under Tiberio's will, vision and management, became both the pioneer and also the leader in its field of Seamless knitting machinery.

One of Tiberio's remarkable and unique characteristics was his impulsiveness and readiness not only  to look forward towards new frontiers but also his willingness to take all the risks for implementing such a vision, and in this admirable combination  especially three great ventures stand out:

• His undoubted world recognition as the pioneer and world leader of the Sector called “Seamless”.
• His great courage in investing in an unprecedented Compact Warp knitting machine for seamlesswear.  Thereby venturing into a technology that was utterly new to the Santoni Company creating with it all sorts of technical improvements and functional novelties.
• His determination to create a Production Unit in China more than 10 years ago with the foundation of the ‘Santoni Shanghai Company’.  This company achieved a brilliant turnover and established the Santoni name in the knitting world of that huge emerging market as well as in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

These are only the highlights of his willingness to risk investing in and implementing his vision, but there are all sorts of lesser technical and commercial innovations where his open-mindedness and  taste for fighting a worthy cause, are known to his collaborators  and employees.

Looking towards the future he also had the vision to diversify his seamless speciality into very closely-connected sectors such as with the large diameter Circular Knitting machine (Vignoni) and the Garment Length circular knitting machine (Mecmor).  He acquired both of these and successfully integrated them into the Santoni Company giving it a unique range of knitting options to offer to the world market and a sometimes healthy technical enhancement and synergy in the important Research and Development Department of Santoni.

Tiberio was one of those leaders who led from the front, personally fighting right in the trenches alongside his officers and his infantry, and while he was the recognised  and respected Chief of all his employees, from the humblest to the highest,  they all felt a solidarity and companionship throughout their struggles and activity.  He had a uniquely powerful presence in all the Companies of the Lonati Group, but also an undisputed presence in the whole International World of Textile machines and specifically in its Knitting machinery Sector.  Also latterly in the more important auxiliary services of finishing, especially concerning machines for making-up, boarding and packaging automation.

Having a collector's flair and passion, he continued his father's private collection of precious and ancient Chinese pottery and sculptures, but typically of Tiberio he also developed his own very fine collections: a striking collection of  famous motorbikes of various periods and lands; some precious historical models of cars (both sports models and urban cars of fabulous brands).  He also, at a certain moment of his life, indulged in, always with great care and humility,  a fine collection of splendid wrist watches.

Having a great talent and taste for interior decoration Tiberio took as much pleasure in creating these collections as in setting them up in their superbly suitable environments designed by him.

But his real passion was always the textile machine world and he was one of those lucky men who could definitely and undoubtedly say " My Life is my Work" (La mia vita è il mio lavoro).

With his loss Italy has lost one of her Champions in the Textile Machine Industry.  The world will be poorer without him and his throne within the International pantheon of Textile Machine Entrepreneurs will remain an indelible one amongst his peers.  He combined generosity, courage and dedication with that remakable humility in learning and pride in working. (The ‘Golden Rule’ he had absorbed from his father).

He leaves a very strong legacy in his Group and many of his employees will keep his memory alive close to their hearts.  In the same silent way that he always kept a flame alight in the form of a lit candle under the small photos of his admired father and beloved mother in his office at Santoni.

The stream of workers from all the Companies of the world famous Lonati Group who could not hold their tears at the official Lying in State set up in his sober office at the Santoni Company on December 17th,  and at his funeral the next day,  is the best sign of homage to a particularly cherished man and leader who was not only greatly admired and respected but also loved.

He is survived by his two brothers Ettore and Fausto, by his wife Joanna,  his four children  Francesco, Andrea, Adele and Matteo, and his ten grandchildren.

Tiberio Lonati, born 27th June 1944 – died 16th December 2013  

www.santoni.com