While economic literature has studied cooperation for innovation within industrial districts at length, there are still few successful cases. This article concerns the case of Ruvaris, a company operating in the taps & fittings sector that is a good example of structured and growing cooperation throughout the years. Ruvaris was effectively created by competing companies based in two industrial districts of Italy to manage cooperative innovation projects. This was without any involvement of public bodies and, in the first phase, without any public financial support.