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Who is Stefano Magnino?

He was born into a middle-class Piedmontese family and, while he was still very young, his philosophy professor father reluctantly realised that his son was destined to be an entrepreneur. Almost immediately, Stefano demonstrated great aptitude for the world of business and began to invest in the most diverse sectors. After years of Italian and European experience, he founded SM Rappresentazioni Internazionali in 1992, with the mission of organising the development of the interesting, but for him not new, cosmetics market in France and the Benelux countries and the intent to reach his objectives in the shortest time possible.
This experience also allowed him to understand the different characteristics and needs of a market, which he responded to by creating new international partnerships with many regional sector wholesalers. In October 1993 he participated for the first time in Mondial Coiffure Beauty in Paris, an international exposition for all the French-speaking countries, where he had an opportunity to meet and directly get to know many hair stylists and also learn the real needs of the category.
In 1996, thanks to an increasingly positive market recovery, Magnino opened his first warehouse dedicated to direct sales to hair stylists. This allowed him to increase his offering in both the French and Italian markets.
During the same period, his son Piero joined the company as a consultant and began to collaborate in the new project with the goal of progressive expansion, which quickly required the assistance of other new employees; for this, Ivan Colella, the “Neapolitan”, who was living in Belgium, was added to the sales staff. Based on his distribution experience, in September 2004, Magnino founded his own company in the Principality of Monaco: this was the origin of SM Trading Monte-Carlo Sarl whose objective is the distribution of products and all types of equipment for hair stylists and beauticians; however, responding to the needs of this particular clientele required very careful choices of the materials to be used. To eliminate the possibility that the customer could be disappointed with the article purchased, often because of in-depth knowledge of the product, Magnino considered it essential to pay the maximum attention to the customer's needs and then assess the proposed materials, which must be of high quality and at the right price.
This is why, from the very beginning, Magnino sought to import products from Italy, precisely because they are universally recognised for their quality: this is true for both the equipment and the furnishings. To guarantee excellent results, SM Trading hired a third important employee, Didier Martin, a hair stylist with thirty years of international experience who was able to select the best articles to sell. In 2006, SM Trading created its own trademark, UNIKA which was advertised in sector trade journals to increase the company's visibility and support its sales staff.
To this, he added a first and, then, a second catalogue and, finally, this new one, which provides photographs of all UNIKA products. In 2008, Elena Magnino, the youngest member of the family, joined the SM Trading team to provide the company highly-professional accounting and administrative services and allowing the sales staff to focus their efforts on other fronts.

SM Trading is an official partner of the Semaine de la Coiffure organised by the Fédération National de la Coiffure Française and, at the request of the trade fair organisation Beauté Selection, participates as an exhibitor and sponsor in the four shows that it organises, and also sponsors the competitions Coiffure Beauté Mediterranee, the Festival de la Coiffure de Evian and, in October of this year, will be present at Mondial Coiffure Beauty 2010, in Paris, in what has, by now, become the UNIKA style.