Inga & C distilleries.

Giovanni Battista Gambarotta founded on 14 October 1903 Italian Factory of Packaging, Chocolate and Compini (FICC) current Novi in via Basaluzzo a Novi Ligure, which took over the previous artisan company of the Gambarotta family founded in 1832.

In 1906 Gambarotta opened the Distillery G.B. Gambarotta in the nearby village Serravalle Scrivia to diversify the production of sweets and liqueurs, Gambarotta died only 45 years old in 1926 after having purchased also in 1916 the concession for water bottling of the Fratta springs at Fratta Terme di Bertinoro (FC) in Emilia-Romagna^[1]. With the post-war crisis and the corporate crisis following his death, Gaetano Inga from Syracuse took over in 1938 and changed the name of the distillery to Distillery Inga and thanks to the aurarchy of fascism he managed to raise society until the outbreak of World War II working also the dates from the Italian colonies to produce the arrak. On 1 February 1939 the distillery was also visited by the Minister of Agriculture and Forests Edmondo Rossoni^[2].

In the years of the economic boom, the company rose again and became one of Italy's most important production in grappa, the famous Fine Grappa Libarna and a new plant was also built in Fabbricone. In 1958 he resumed the name of Distillery G.B. Gambarotta and maintained it until 1978 when the company was divided into Gambarotta (producer of cakes) and Distillery Inga producer of super-alcoholics, firstly grappa and brandy to try to renovate the company that crossed a period of crisis that would bring it slowly to the close, in fact in 1970 the company had 130 employees and in 1983 was sold by the Inga family to the Bolognese group Buton S.p.a which had owned the brand Vecchia Romagna. In 1986 employees were only fifteen, and the fumes made the air irresistible and there was also a citizen's exposure and a meeting with the mayor of the municipality^[3].

On December 4, 1993 in the distillery there was a serious fire that destroyed the dryer and invested two workers during maintenance work, a worker was admitted with burns to the hands of first and second degree instead one was admitted and discharged after three days^[4], the same year the company was sold to the British group International Distillers and Vintners Ltd (IDV) Subsidy Grand Metropolitan until the end of the group in 1997.

On September 2, 1997 a fire destroyed a shed and caused five billion damage by destroying about 2,500 litres of aged cognac 8-9 years in Slavonian oak barrels^[5].

In October 1999 the sheds were lazy for a value of two billion^[6], then in December the distillery began to repay the debts of 150 million with interest and revaluation rising to 280 following the conviction of the owner Elio Inga for manslaughter^[7] (1929-2020) for the death of a worker in 1983^[8], furthermore at the time of the accident the company was also in an arrangement with creditors shortly before being sold to Buton^[9].

In March 2008, the company's activity was suspended with the last three workers in operation due to the failure caused by debt, and the same month it collapsed part of the wall on the adjacent A7 highway and the following month it was also put under seizure thus interrupting the secular history of the distillery.

Since 2019 it has been decided at the municipality that the tower bearing the historical writing company will not be destroyed being considered monumental and will rise a museum of the grappa in the area of 18.000 square meters.^[11]