Mario Rinaldi (1891-1969), the youngest of twelve children, took over a hardware store from Carlo Fontana in 1913, located at 72 Via dei Savonarola in Padua, which included a large warehouse at the back (still in existence). Coming from a wealthy bourgeois family in Padua, Mario was an enterprising and affluent individual, residing on Via delle Debite, in the section that connects Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori. His brother, Arturo Antonio, was already running a hardware store on Via Emanuele Filiberto, in the center of Padua. The Rinaldi family had been involved in this business sector for at least one previous generation, before the Morassutti family had even arrived in the city.

On Via Savonarola, in addition to the storefront, the rear warehouse served as both a storage facility and a workshop for the production of metal small parts. During the challenging months leading up to the end of the Great War, production was diversified and increased, with the first orders coming in from the State, mainly for stretchers and hospital furniture made of tubular iron.

Despite difficulties in sourcing metal semi-finished products from Germany due to the ongoing war, the artisanal company, with only eight workers, experienced significant growth thanks to the profits from the government orders. It was only in June 1923 that Mario Rinaldi formally established his business as a “manufacturer of iron beds and furniture,” although it had already been in operation for a few years. A diploma attesting to the participation of the “Primary Factory of Metal Constructions Mario Rinaldi” in the Milan United Expositions of 1922 marked the company’s first appearance on the national scene, where it was awarded the Grand Prize Gold Medal for the quality of its products.

In 1925, after a long legal dispute, Mario Rinaldi was unable to acquire the property on Via dei Savonarola, leading to the eviction of the business by the new owner. In October 1926, Rinaldi moved production to 26 Via Fusinato, adjacent to Via Savonarola, marking the beginning of an exclusively industrial phase, though still on a small scale, focusing solely on producing and selling its own products.

In the following years, the company’s catalog expanded, and production extended to folding chairs and armchairs made of iron tubing, intended for both outdoor use and public spaces. Although the “Mannesmann seamless tube” had been patented in Germany since the end of the previous century, Rima had not yet adopted it for its products in the 1920s. The product line was inevitably inspired by European bentwood furniture. During these years, Rima supplied many public establishments in Venice and the Veneto region with a first generation of folding outdoor chairs, which would be replaced in the 1950s by stackable aluminum models.

In 1933, with a slight increase in workers and the acquisition of a suitable property, Mario Rinaldi moved production to 134 Via Paolo Sarpi, on the ring road. In 1932, his eldest son, Giorgio Rinaldi, who was then very young, filed a patent for a folding deckchair, marking an important innovation for the company. Although it is unlikely that this was Rima’s only patent before World War II, it is the only one preserved. In the 1930s, Rima continued to work for the Italian State, producing hospital furniture and furnishings for seaside colonies.

In the late 1930s, Mario Rinaldi acquired a large plot of land in the Arcella area, on the northern outskirts of Padua, from the Morandi family, who owned several industrial brick factories in Veneto. Although the workshop on Via Paolo Sarpi was efficient and well-served, it proved to be in an unfavorable location, especially during the war, when the first Allied bombing of Padua in December 1943 caused severe damage, followed by further destruction in a subsequent raid. However, the work begun on the Arcella land opened new prospects for the company.

In 1943, Rima acquired a portion of the Pessi property, which already had a department for the molding of thermosetting powders. From this acquisition, construction began on a new factory, introducing Rima to the technology for mass-producing molded phenolic resin components, possibly making it the first company in Italy to use plastic for seating components.

In 1944, the Rinaldi Mario company was transformed into the partnership “Rinaldi Mario e C.,” with headquarters on Stradella Camporese, involving all four of Mario’s children in the management. After the German retreat, the company resumed normal production, and important orders increasingly came from the private sector. Among these was the furnishing of the Marzotto Village in Jesolo in 1949, a project commissioned by Count Gaetano Marzotto.

During this period, the contribution of Mario’s children was crucial to the company’s success. Giorgio, active from a young age, Antonio, who returned to work after his imprisonment in Buchenwald, and Gastone, who left his studies to join the family business, all played a significant role. Mario’s daughter Renata also participated in the management, albeit indirectly. Mario Rinaldi, the founder, maintained an active role, handling patent-related matters and managing relations with banks. This generational transition marked the beginning of a second phase in Rima’s history, leading it step by step to its most successful period.