Siam Di Tella

SIAM (Sección Industrial Amasadoras Mecánicas)
FormerlySIAM Di Tella
Company typePrivate
IndustryMetalworking
Founded1911
FounderTorcuato di Tella
Defunct1981; 43 years ago (1981)
FateDeclared bankruptcy in 1981, assets sold. "SIAM" brand relaunched and original plant reopened in 2014 [1]
HeadquartersPiñeiro, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Key people
Luis Galli (Newsam CEO) [1]
Products
OwnerNewsan (2014–pres.)
Websitesiam.com.ar

SIAM (an acronym from Sección Industrial Amasadoras Mecánicas, formerly SIAM Di Tella) is an Argentine home appliance brand, currently owned by "Grupo Industrial Newsan", a leader of the segment in the region. The original "Siam Di Tella" company was founded in Buenos Aires by Torcuato di Tella in 1911, established as a manufacturer of mechanical bread machines. Subsequently, production was diversified by incorporating the production of refrigerators, washing machines, kitchens, televisions, scooters, vans, automobiles, and elements for private industry and the public sector, such as oil pumping equipment, large electrical transformers, steel pipes and generators for diesel-electric locomotives. By the 1940s, the company became the largest metalworking industry in South America.[2]

The company was nationalized in 1972 and in 1986, during the government of Raúl Alfonsín, it was dismantled and sold separately to three private business groups (Techint, Pérez Companc and Aurora). After securing rights to the "SIAM" brand name, Newsan reopened the former Siam Di Tella plant in Piñeiro, Buenos Aires on 30 April 2014, with an investment of more than USD35 million.[1]

Currently, Newsan (a company with more than 3,500 employees and licensee of Sanyo, Philco, and other electronics companies) manufactures refrigerators with the "SIAM" brand in the Piñeiro plant.[2]