Moroccan Immigrant’s Train Mishap Leads to Italian Factory Success
Abderrahim Naji has received fresh recognition in Italy. His company, CS Stampi, is among the winners of a film competition held in Rome on 21 October. Behind the distinction is a rise that began with a simple job and an unexpected train journey.
Abderrahim Naji was supposed to get off in Como. In 1989, after leaving Morocco to study in France, he boarded a train from Switzerland and fell asleep. He woke up in Padua, much farther than he had planned to travel. The mishap took him to the Italian city where he would build his career.
A few months later, he found a job at CS Stampi, a manufacturer of moulds and plastic parts near Padua. In 1997, he bought the factory where he had been an employee. The company then had four employees, he told Italian industry magazine Plastix.
The business grew, particularly in the automotive and home appliance sectors. Revenue reached 6.6 million euros in 2014. The following year, Naji received Italy’s MoneyGram award for Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year.
His factory in the spotlight at the Rome Film Festival
On Wednesday, 21 October 2026, CS Stampi featured among the winners of “Visioni Made in Italy,” a competition organized by SIMEST with Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its film “Oltre il Confine” (“Beyond Borders”) was included in the “Piano Mattei Africa” category, dedicated to economic relations with the continent.
The agency Italpress describes the Italian-Moroccan entrepreneur as a winner of the award. SIMEST’s official announcement names three works in the category without ranking them. CS Stampi’s inclusion among the recognized companies is confirmed.
Naji has also continued to expand his industrial business. In 2022, Corriere del Veneto reported that he had bought Plastic Forming, a company in difficulty, and launched an internal initiative to reward employees with up to 5,000 euros for proposing useful improvements.
The next step for his company: SIMEST plans to broadcast the competition films on a national television channel and promote them through the network of Italian embassies and cultural institutes.
