That undertaking with special characteristics started in the city of São José dos Pinhais, in Paraná, an initiative of the Italian immigrant Ezígio Cini, ex-member of Colônia Cecília, who came to Brazil together with an anarchist group in the XIX century, settled in the land granted by D. Pedro II, in Palmeiras municipality and distant three 3 miles from Santa Bárbara, intending to build a nucleus in accordance with his ideology, for political aims of demonstration.

In the colony,, Ezígio Cini married with another anarchist’s daughter, Aldina Benedetti, who was the sister of Evangelista Benedetti and Catarina Benedetti, family pioneer, initially installed in the nucleus of the colony. Then, Ezígio Cini and Aldina Benedetti Cini built a corn meal Mill and in October 1st, 1891, Hugo Cini the first-born of the couple was born.

They were coexisting in an association of libertarian character attempting to follow the anarchist principles working as a free and independent commune. Everything belonged to the associations, and the lands would be of those who were cultivating them, freedom prevailing through political, economical and social equality.

In that ideological adaptation, Ezígio Cini was considered an intellectual who was defending his ideals through a newspaper created in 1899 in Curitiba which was directed by him, “Il Diretto Libertario”, inclined to anarchist divulgation, which would possibly have influenced the working class in Curitiba, since on its pages an “Appeal” was addressed to the workers:"All those who would receive ill-treatment by the so called bosses are invited to inform this administration in order to, through the pages of this newspaper, assist the rights of the enjoyed against those who enjoy”. The newspaper had a subtitle:”Communist-anarchic periodical publication”, with the following address Rua Silva Jardim, nr. 60. Several “Cecilian” names were among the collaborators (information supplied by the Paraná Public Library).

With the advent of the Republic, the decadence of Colônia Cecília happened quickly due to the colonial debt. Meanwhile those facts, due to the friendship between Ezígio Cini and a liberal antiflorianist who was sheltered in his house for many days, he was forced to escape to Lapa – PR, where he was hidden in a well and subsequently was imprisoned for 40 days. His wife and children were accommodated in friends’ home in Palmeira.

Returning to Palmeira in 1904, Ezígio Cini was associated to Carlos Chelli, he also an ex-integrant of Colônia Cecília. Subsequently, both went to São José dos Pinhais, where they were installed as beverage manufacturers.

In Palmeira, they produced liquers, and in São José dos Pinhais in a rented area, they formed Maltinha beer plant (sweet and bitter stout).

With the death of Ezígio Cini, his wife Aldina assumed the position in the association with Chelli, where she could already dispose of the help of the oldest son, Hugo.

Having no more interest in the enterprise continuity, the partner Chelli sold his share in the society to Hugo Cini who assumed the direction of the industry, buying his mother’s and brothers’ shares, thus showing early his spirit of leadership and businessman.
The means of production was a manual machine operated by pedal, a tank to wash bottles and oak casks for the beer.

The raw material was coming from Czechoslovakia in boxes sealed with zinc to avoid the passage of moisture, going to the mill and then to fermentation. The hop was also coming from abroad.

Fermentation took from 25 to 30 days and to avoid the sourness caused by the cooling while being in the casks, the employee in charge had to work overtime.

While the factory was successful in São José dos Pinhais, to increase the consumer’s number and better serve them, a warehouse in Curitiba was built in an area gotten by inheritance. Results were so positive that shortly afterwards, the warehouse became a Curitiba factory being close to the plant in São José dos Pinhais. As a matter of fact results were so satisfactory that the industry, though maintaining its typically domestic and close corporate characteristics and having also members of the family collaborating, allowed them to survive through the serious international crisis in 1929/1930.

With the definite transfer from São José dos Pinhais to Curitiba, the soda plant was working precariously. It’s installation was housed in a shed with two machines to prepare soda and containers to wash bottles.

The installation of Hugo Cini e Cia in Curitiba was registered in March 4th, 1928, and in 1945, the corporate name was changed to Hugo Cini e Filhos Ltda., with participation of Hugo Cini’s wife, Amélia Gobbo Cini,and his children: Carlos Ezígio, Carolina Isolina, Aldina, Orlando, Espérdie, Nilo and Ginete. At the head of affairs, as always, the “Old Hugo” as he used to be called. Craft production was prevailing and labor was mostly familiar – people married and their children were put to work in the factory with only two employees in the staff were not from Cini family: a salesman and a general services assistant.

Sales were carried out by carts loaded in the beginning of the week with 60 or 70 dozens consisting in “capilé” (a flavored syrup to be mixed with water), “gasosa” (soda). firewater and beer. Since the process to produce beer was very expensive, the factory stopped producing it during the Second World War. Also in the decade of 1940, Cini family was producing the famous “colinha”, soft drink of 190ml, having a cola flavor tending to malt.

Part of the machinery in Curitiba to produce soda was imported from Germany – Dickies machines. The other machines were used and bought in Brazil as determined by Orlando Cini, Hugo’s son, who was the chemist in charge of the formula originally from Europe. Those means of production were gotten under financing. The Dickes machine took 8 days to be transported from Paranaguá Port, with double freight due to the difficulties to transport it.

The preparation of “gasosa” was made by Hugo Cini, while “old black” was spinning the crank of pressure for gasification. The product was prepared manually. The essences were from Germany, in raspberry, lemon, pineapple and ginger flavors, as well as the special “procaroli”, caramel used to color beer, shipped in a barrel of 200 liters. Even the imported raw material in the final product had low cost.

In the beginning, there were no established working hours. During carnival and festive days, they keep bottling the product all night in order to supply São José dos Pinhais, Campo Largo, Santa Felicidade and vicinities.

From a domestic industry and close corporation, Hugo Cini managed the factory, being called “the shouter” due to his energy and his personal character because the employees were mainly members of the family.

The soda produced was not suffering great competition because it was having good acceptance in the consumer market. The company had a great impetus after the war due to the gradual improvement in its capital production through the management of its businessman.

With the continuous growth of the enterprise, in May 1963 it was transformed into Stock Company under the designation Hugo Cini S.A. – Indústria de Bebidas e Conexos, being already considered an expressive soft drink industry of Curitiba, imposing itself by the high quality of its products known beyond the boundary line of the State. It was in that decade that, even having a promotion with the soft drink “colinha” (offering prizes inside the cork lid), the factory stopped producing it due to the great competition of another “cola”. .The sodas did not suffer with the competition because they have already established a loyal public especially the well known “Gengibirra” (ginger soda) because, after the death of his father in 1970, Orlando Cini became the director president of the enterprise, maintaining the same care on the quality and flavor criteria..

During his whole life, Hugo Cini has never forgotten to act in social and communitarian life. Besides his strenuous and competitive management of the business activities, he was still reserving time to be an active member of several charitable and recreational societies. Being one of the former and passionate tourists of Paraná, he also invested in the progress of Jockey Club do Paraná, where he was a shareholder partner, director, breeder and high lineage racehorses’ owner with many famous racers, legating to his descending relatives the same passion for the American horse racing.

In that context, Hugo Cini was an innovatory businessman in his field, example of a businessman of uncontested leadership, of capacity and honesty, and his behavior while very often egocentric and centralist, has proven that family administration is not organizationally static, and his children and grandchildren were trained for the exercise of industrial leadership.

Since he was a child/teenager, Orlando Cini used to spend hours in the factory and assumed the presidency of the enterprise in 1970. He was born a leader and didn’t have specialized notions on how to lead, following the example of his father (Hugo Cini) and his grandfather (Ezígio Cini) who created Hugo Cini enterprise. He shows confidence in his leaders and the leaders show their confidence in him. His enterprising power and the knowledge of each área of the enterprise, his strength and the realizing spirit he had during his life, the decisions he made, even being in the long term, seemed he was always sure on what and how they related to the market and its conditions. He was always daring and believed in his objectives. He invested in the enterprise purchasing new machinery, perfecting the human capacities of his collaborators, developing new flavors and a new type of product (diet soft drink). With the segment and the enterprise growth, the need to professionalize the administration of the enterprise arose and that was delegated to external consultants, not pertaining to the Cini family and the Cini family, through the Enterprise Council participated in the business decisions proposed by the consultants.

In 1996, the industry installation in Curitiba was not adequate for its industrial needs anymore, both regarding its production and distribution logistics because it was located in the central area of the city. There was a need for a new installation and the chosen location was Pinhais municipality, metropolitan region of Curitiba where the industry would have at its disposal an area with 10.000m², being 6.000m² of built area. Simultaneous to the change of location, there took place the return of Cini family assuming the administration, to start a new journey.

That space, would become the enterprise headquarters and went through some reforms in order to accommodate all its departments which had larger room and more technology for the work. Having that larger structure, the industry distributed its equipment, raw material stocking structure and finished products in a better organized way. The expedition area had also revolutions in it and they contributed a lot for a perfect logistics

Succession in the enterprise, already under Orlando Cini command, happened in a simple way and in accordance with the professional interests of each descendant and heirs of Cini family, and now, in the year 2006, the direction is composed by the following persons: Vera Lúcia Cini, Orlando Cini’s daughter, president and commercial director, Maria Elisa Cini, administrative director and Nilo Cini Júnior industrial director, both Nilo Cini’s children.