The book: “Grimaldi Armatori”

Naples, The Story of a Family and a Company

The seventy years of ship owning history that are lost over the centuries. And in the background the city of Naples, its wealth, the beating heart of a company known all over the world. All this is told in the book “Grimaldi Armatori: The Story of a Family and a Company” written by journalists Bianca d’Antonio and Justin Stares, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of its founder, Guido Grimaldi, who died in 2010. The book is born from an idea of ​​the brothers Gianluca and Manuel Grimaldi, sons of Guido, who today lead the company together with his brother-in-law Diego Pacella.  

The Grimaldi ship owning family is described in the pages of the book, with a history that finds its roots back in the Middle Ages. A group that today employs 13 thousand people and has taken the wind of innovation and globalization in advance with its cutting-edge ships, passing through difficult moments in recent history.  

Despite the global dimensions, however, the shipping holding company is still an exclusively Italian excellence and firmly linked to the city of Naples: the city of origin where the company’s heart and mind will always remain, as its founder desired. Modernity, passion, spirit of sacrifice, intuition and great ability to look far, these are the characteristics of Guido Grimaldi. The great intuition dates back to the end of the 60s, when Guido Grimaldi invented short sea shipping links, ancestors of the current motorways of the sea, to transport vehicles between Italy and the rest of Europe. The following years, until today, are a long path of expansion and success for a company that has survived unscathed historical events that have often upset the world economy, such as the closure of the Suez Canal, the increase in the cost of oil and the freight crisis, and even earlier wars. A company that has become a leading global player in the transport of vehicles and passengers.

Thanks to the investments made over the years, the group is today a leader in the maritime transport of automobiles and other ro/ro rolling cargoes, as well as being active also in the transport of goods in containers and palletized cargo on all routes crossed by ships. Recently, the majority stake in Finnlines, the leading shipping company in the Baltic and North Sea connections, has been acquired. A strategic operation to further intensify its logistics network in Northern Europe. The group has recently acquired the majority shareholding in the Greek company Minoan Lines, which operates on the Adriatic and inland routes between Piraeus and Crete. It also acquired shares in the main ports of Northern Europe and the African terminal of Lagos, Nigeria. To tell the story of the Grimaldi family and to follow in this way important moments in the history of Italy, two journalists have been appointed, including Bianca D’Antonio, the famous signature of shipping in Italy, repeatedly rewarded for her talent as a writer, appreciated and esteemed as a person and professional by the Grimaldi family and by many other Italian ship owning families.