Who we are, who we were: Past and Present Panini Comics Panini is probably best recognised for its sticker collections, but as you can see from this website we also have about 25 regular comic and magazine titles ranging from Sindy, Cartoon Network and Art Attack to Dr Who Magazine and Classic Marvel titles such as the X-Men and Spider-Man. You may not have known that we also have other products in our portfolio, such as trading cards, tattoos and telephone cards. The Panini Group The sticker and card division is part of an important international group which, in Italy as well as in the main European countries, is structured in 4 departments: The sticker and card division, a comic division, a comic distribution division (Pan Distribuzione, where Pan stands for Panini...) and a New Media division (Panini Interactive, which develops and carries out projects on Internet and multi-media). History of Panini UK Ltd It was not until 1978 that Panini came to the UK in force with the "Football 78" sticker collection. The Panini Group: History and Background info Panini was founded in 1961 with its first Calciatori/Football Players collection. The founders, the Panini brothers, had already opened a news-stand on Corso Duomo in Modena in 1945 and in 1954 had started the Panini Brothers Newspaper Distribution Office. The company remained under the control of the Panini family and grew to reach an annual turnover in excess of 100 billion Lira. In 1988 the company was sold to the Maxwell Group, which imposed a series of managerial changes through foreign management. After years of financial difficulties, in 1992 Panini was bought by Bain Gallo Cuneo and De Agostini. It took only two years of careful administration to return to its past glory. Panini then joined the Marvel Entertainment Group. Management, however, headed by Aldo H. Sallustro, was maintained, and the headquarters remained in Italy. On October 8th, 1999, Panini was bought by Vittorio Merloni's Fineldo SpA, an Italian conglomerate engaged in the manufacture of various consumer products and financing businesses, together with the Senior Management of Panini. The value of the acquisition was 102 billion lira (£34 million). Recently, Panini has acquired the company World Foot Centre, which deals with the distribution and promotion of football merchandising, both for the clubs and for the French national team. It has also acquired a major share in DigitalSoccer Project, which develops revolutionary software in the sports sector. Moreover, the manufacturing of adhesive paper, represented by the Adespan division, has been sold to Avery Dennison, the world leader in the adhesive paper market. The Panini Group, (total workforce 643 at December 31th, 1999) with its head office in Modena (Italy) and subsidiaries in all the major European markets and Brazil, is the world leader in the sticker market, the 4th biggest European publisher for children, the leading comic disiributor in bookstores in Italy and is developing a strong programme in the field of multimedia. In 1999 its consolidated turnover was 347 billion Lira, distributing products to more than 100 countries. For some more unusual and interesting facts visit the panini.co.uk trivia page.