GICO’s 50 years: The 1990s and the international kitchen

In recent weeks, on our blog we have told the story of the kitchen – in Italy and the world – from the 1970s on. 

It is a story that has involved our company ever since its foundation in 1971. GICO, a pioneer in its field, has made its mark on the evolution of food service, from what it was then to what we know it as today.

THE HISTORIC CONTEXT

In the 1990s the international political scenario was still feeling the consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989). This historic event caused a series of positive events that upended the world’s balance. 

In the first year of the new decade, Germany became a single nation again; later, in 1991, the Soviet republics acquired their independence from the defunct USSR; and in 1992 the Maastricht Treaty was signed, bringing into being the European Union.

THE FIRST CE CERTIFICATION

The historic context of the early nineties involved the evolution of standards and regulations on international markets. At this time GICO products achieved a series of important certifications, and in 1993 GICO gas appliances obtained CE marking, an absolute first in the industry’s history.  

CE marking, issued by a primary approval authority, meant that from the beginning of the 1990s GICO kitchen equipment could be distributed throughout the European Union.

GICO’s 25 YEARS 

In 1996, GICO celebrated its first 25 years of activity.  During that same year, the company achieved the important ISO 9001 Corporate Certification. 

It was an important moment in the industry, as the bureaucracy involved in obtaining this certification in the 90s was highly complex and normally the standards applied related to those of the big multinationals.

GICO IN RUSSIA

Immediately after the fall of the Soviet regime, GICO went to Moscow with a group of Italian entrepreneurs.  In 1998, our kitchen equipment was among the first to obtain certification by the Russian government authority GOST.  This meant that our company could sell its products throughout the former Soviet Union.

This was the picture of food service on a European and international scale, with GICO introducing itself as one of the most important players in the trade. The 1990s were also an age of change in our own territory. 

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