During the early 1970s, right in the midst of Brazil’s “economic miracle”, a traditional Italian manufacturer of circular machines envisioned an excellent business opportunity in the Brazilian market.
To meet the needs of this new market, Mr. Paolo Orizio opened a commercial agency office in the city of São Paulo in 1972.
Aware of the potential for even greater growth, he then opened a small factory in the Barra Funda neighborhood in 1977. The cooperation of the present Financial Director, Ms. Criseli Alves Fernandes, and the present Commercial Director, Mr. Luciano Natalini, who were already with the company at that time, was instrumental in this endeavor. The factory was called AVANÇO Indústria e Comércio ee Máquinas LTDA., and it was the beginning of our present day industrial park. At that time, parts were imported from Orizio in Italy, and the machines were assembled at the factory here.
Even when the economic miracle came to an end, and it became more difficult to import parts, the Company never lost faith in Brazil.

Instead, it began to produce domestically, opening a new factory in the Tatuapé neighborhood in 1985. By 1987, with help from our present General and Industrial Director, Mr. Dante Battaglio, the factory was moved to larger facilities in the Ipiranga neighborhood. In 1989, a second plant was opened in the Mooca neighborhood to meet the growing demand for Avanço/Orizio machinery. But even this could not keep up with the demand from Orizio’s customers in Brazil, and in 1990 we acquired our present industrial building. Since then, we have enlarged the plant several times, in addition to purchasing another industrial building in 1996, located in front of our main offices. Our plant now occupies some 10,000 square meters of self-owned floor space.
During this period, Avanço, which started out as an importer of circular machines, began to export and consolidate the brand on the international market. By first assimilating Orizio’s technology, and then forming its own technical staff, the Company implemented a program designed to satisfy the needs of all markets. Avanço now holds ISO 9001 certification, ABIMAQ - Excellence Program Certification, and European Union Certification.

In 2005, Avanço purchased all the rights to the trademark, registrations and patents from Orizio in Italy. Avanço, under the brand name Orizio, is now ready to chart a new course and face the challenges brought on by globalization. We want to offer knitwear manufacturers in other countries the same excellent cost / benefit / quality ratio that has been tested and approved by our Brazilian customers, as shown by the more than 5,000 machines already installed and fully operating in Brazil.