“We are optimistic: there will always be room for companies that offer smart and effective solutions through an international network”. This is the comment of both Stefano and Riccardo Mauri – owners of Giardina Group, a world leader in painting and surface finishing technologies – regarding the 2023 results. Seventy employees, a turnover of around 20 million euros, a vast range of solutions stemming from a long-lasting and well-established partnership with companies that – in every corner of the world – operate in the painting sector, deep relationships that have enabled the Italian company to reach an export share close to 95% of its total output.
A consolidated presence in many international markets that has made it possible to acquire an extensive set of orders for 2024 as well: indeed, after a brief period of uncertainty, demand has returned to good levels, with the possibility of planning key deliveries up to the beginning of 2025, so as to have the energy needed to include any urgent requests in production programmes. Precisely the ability to respond quickly to customer requests is one of the keys to the growing success of Giardina Group.
Its production focuses precisely on this aspect, as the order for a machine or system is not always something planned and the above often proves to be a strategic tool for tackling certain orders.
This strategy includes the availability of stand-alone machines that can be installed and tested in a few weeks, so as to help clients be more competitive. On the other hand, 2023 saw the confirmation of Giardina Group’s vocation for custom-made systems. This has always been the core business of the company, which continues to be among the privileged partners for this type of demand, thanks to an even more direct involvement in phases part of the painting process: handling and sanding.
“We are building an actual network also at a technical-production level, thanks to which we can also offer edge and profile sanding solutions to those who want our quality, thanks to Destefani, but also automation, logistics and handling solutions”, says Riccardo Mauri, co-owner and technical director at Giardina Group. “Offering technology involves full attention to the customer’s needs, as well as to the big issues that the industry must be able to responsibly address today. There is much talk about sustainability, for example, a topic that has always been a daily challenge for a sector like ours. Painting-related activities have alarmed, often rightly, many. The situation is very different today and we, as technology manufacturers, are the first to implement a whole series of innovations and solutions which not only comply with the most stringent environmental protection regulations, but also regulations that guarantee aesthetic quality and resistance that are even better than in the past. Right from the early design stages, each machine, each system is studied and defined so that it has the lowest possible energy requirements and very low emission levels, whilst always guaranteeing finishes of the best quality”.
“Skills and quality that we show at work in our Giampiero Mauri Innovation Centre, a laboratory/show room where technicians and customers from all over the world come to test their products, to paint them, to verify the quality that our machines and our systems can help provide”, says sales director Stefano Tibè.
“We are launching new integrated hospitality projects for customers, offering an increasingly broader range of demos and training on every aspect of finishing, for which we receive many participation requests every year. Besides, we have all realized that now it is not enough to design and build good machines, but you need to provide a comprehensive, total service that enables customers to exclusively focus on their own business, delegating all the issues related to the various processing cycles to trusted suppliers”.
Therefore, companies that do not limit themselves to manufacturing, but that constantly interact with all the players in the supply chain, becoming bearers of ideas and values: it is no coincidence that the Giardina Group Academy will be launched in 2024. This is meant to be an actual ‘school’ that will be carried out in partnership with Catas, the most important testing laboratory for the wood and furniture supply chain in Europe. It will start out in Brazil, a country that is proving to be increasingly strategic for Giardina Group.
“We want to prove that sharing knowledge can open new avenues in markets where there is still a lot to discover”; added Stefano Mauri. “An initiative that has been in our plans for some time and which we want to turn into an actual model to export to other countries, because Italian technology must increasingly act as a complex response, in which the machine is only one of the components necessary to guarantee a service. This is what businesses want today: service, the ability to have tools that are easy to use, supported by actual partners not only at the time of sale, but also and above all at the assistance stage, in continuity with the relationship established, with hardware and software updates acting as a support to accept new orders and redefine competitiveness levels on a market clearly constantly on the move.
This all leads us to face this economic season with peace of mind. A season in many ways influenced by excellent results in terms of turnover but also by greater uncertainties in terms of orders. We find ourselves operating in an economic-social context full of complexity that we recommend many stand back and watch for a little while longer, waiting for at least some of the many clouds that still darken the horizon to disappear”.
A chapter that underlines with a precise strategy the commitment of Giardina Group in markets all over the world. It enabled the company to consolidate a strong network of stable representatives to reiterate a ‘quality proximity’ to its increasingly numerous customers.
