Milan, Feb. 10^th, 2025 - "A Sound Idea", an Italian and English podcast created by Amplifon in collaboration with Italian podcast production company Chora Media to tell the 75-year story of the world leader in hearing care services and solutions, is now online.

The podcast tells an adventurous and exciting story of a business born in a basement in downtown Milan in the early 1950s, thanks to the insight of the engineer and former British Army Major Charles Holland who parachuted with his brigade into the Apennines of Emilia in 1944 to help the Allied troops and the Italian Resistance liberate the country from Nazi Fascism.

At the end of the conflict, Holland settled in Italy, married Anna Maria Formiggini in Milan, and started a new business to help people who had suffered hearing damage from bombings. "Today," tells the podcast, "we would call it a startup, but this is how a new adventure starts for Charles Holland, that same adventure he will dedicate the rest of his life: Amplifon.”

Thanks in part to advances in technology, Charles Holland brought care closer to the people, first through equipped pickup trucks (the mobile hearing labs), then through the creation of a network of stores throughout Italy, focusing on the service provided to people by hearing care professionals, the practitioners who specialize in the identification and treatment of hearing loss.

Since the late 1990s, Amplifon has embarked on a path of internationalization, thanks to the impetus of Susan Carol Holland, daughter of Charles, Vice Chairman since 1993 and Chairman since 2011. In the last decade, under the leadership of CEO Enrico Vita, the company - listed on the stock exchange since 2001 - has grown to more than 10,000 stores in 26 countries around the world, with more than 20,000 employees and collaborators, approaching 2.5 billion euros in sales and consolidating its leadership in the hearing care retail sector.

The podcast, a single episode of about 12 minutes, is available on all free audio platforms (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Amazon Music), as well as on Amplinet, Amplifon's global intranet, in Italian with the voice of Carlo Notarpietro and in English with the voice of Caterina Sforza. At the beginning of the podcast, in line with Amplifon's "Listen Responsibly" project, there is a request to listen responsibly by keeping the volume of the headphones at no more than 60 percent.