Year 1940: Night between 15 and June 16
Milan was bombed  just 5 days after the Italy’s entrance in war.
Several buildings near the Farini place were bombed, including Bella Ferramenti Industrie, an iron parts and locks from Germany importing company.
The 31th of January 1941, PREFER sees its birthplace by the Predelli Fermo.

Year 1950:
Initially parts of locks, latches and devices tailored closing were produced but soon, Prefer finds a well-defined market space and began to manufacture cylinder with pins and locks for shutters  positioning itself between the most advanced companies in the sector.
This gave birth to the unique key by Prefer.

Year 1960:
The company, now leader in the field of building locks, is expanding by establishing important collaborations and launching the production of locks for office furniture.
The qualities which distinguish PREFER company are the customer focus and the customization according to its needs.
One example of this philosophy, is the lock for drawer “Olivetti type”

Year 1970:
The seventies have seen the expansion of the office furniture locks range and the start of the production of aluminum doors locks and the launch of the historic "Preferino" still universally present.

Year 1980:
In these years Prefer have started the production for special application areas, such as the Coin telephone, the cash registers, the juke box, mobile video games, slot machines.
Those are special locks with key operating with a radial pins, from which the product line called Radial was born.
In the mid 80's the Prefer’s property have passed from the Predelli family to the Finardi family; in recent years, major investments are made, the machines are refurbished, new production processes and new methods of management control were introduced.

Year 1990:
In 1993 the new Prefer headquarter was built  in Cantalupo.
The new modern management leading to the quality certification ISO 9001.
We continue to diversify product lines with the launch of the Multiple System family characterized by the possibility of exchange in a simple and rapid way the cylinders of the locks for office furniture.

Year 2000:
We have entered on the international markets and for this reason Prefer offer Serrures in France, cerraduras in Spain, Schlosser in Germany and Locks worldwide.