History of Smeg - Makers of Fridges Ovens and Household goods

In 1948, Vittoria Bertazzoni founded Smeg, the kitchen appliance company that is most commonly identified with its brightly-coloured 1950s retro-style fridges. The company was, and still is, based near the town of Guastalla, in the Reggio Emilia region of Italy.

Smeg stands for Smalterie Metallurgiche Emiliane Guastalla – metal enamelling factory in Guastalla, Reggio Emilia, and from an early stage, Smeg's high-quality and stylish enamelled fridges became very popular.

Today, Smeg is still under the control of the Bertazzoni family, and the company is currently run by Roberto Bertazzoni. Their trademark, "Tecnologia che arreda" translates as "Technology with Style" and their fridges epitomise this ideal.

Smeg fridges have an understated style and simplicity that gives them an unmistakeable character, and perhaps explains why they seem to have risen above fashion, remaining popular as other designs come and go.

All Smeg products, including fridges, undergo a two year development and testing cycle and benefit from high-quality design and modern technology underneath their retro styling. Smeg products are all designed to have a fifteen year lifespan.

Smeg are the definition of cool in the UK. No designer or media type has a kitchen without a smeg fridge or dishwasher. ironically, many people thought that smeg were a post modern ironic brand that played on TV comedies like BBC's The Young Ones which coined the word smeg to define something that smelt extremely unpleasant (as in smegma) and that one would get emanating from a typical student fridge. This is merely a coincidence, albeit a happy ones for the heirs of Vittoria Bertazzoni.