Ennio International goes global in clever switch in Adelaide from fashion clothing to smallgoods netting

Gervasio and Giovanna Mercuri, founders of Ennio International that later exported its meat packaging technology to Europe, China, the USA and Canada.

Ennio International of Holden Hill built up a global market for its seamless smallgoods netting. This was a triumph in innovating for a company that started life as a fashion business. 

Husband and wife Gervasio and Giovanna Mercuri brought their design experience to Australia from Italy in 1957 and founded Mercuri Knitwear in Adelaide. They built their business with quality garments winning numerous Australian awards. But the dropping of tarrifs on imported textiles in the 1980s forced the Mercuris to diversify.

They realised they could use their machines to make netting for meats and smallgoods. Forming Ennio Pty Ltd in 1983, they soon added several new purpose-built knitting machines.

The Mercuris were among the first in the world to make seamless smallgoods netting. Ennio International went global in the late 1980s with an improved design of elastic netting launched as String Cling.

It exported to Europe, China, the USA and Canada, as well as dominating the Australian and New Zealand markets. It won a $2 million federal government manufacturing grant to buy high-tech textile equipment for meat packaging.

The Mercuris have launched more patented netting and casing products to fill gaps in the Australian and international market with quality packaging solutions for the meat, poultry and smallgoods worldwide.

Ennio International was inducted into the Family Business Australia hall of fame in 2016 and won its distinguished family business of year award in 2017.