The next Sicam will host the “launch” of Italiana Bordi, a new brand that tells an ancient and prestigious story, the story of one of Italy’s most appreciated edge producers, a company that has been facing many difficulties in recent years, while always keeping a strong commitment to research and offering high-quality products.
“The key topic is the transition from a family-run to a manager-driven business”, said CEO Giovanni Gioli, an experienced manager in the business of semifinished materials for wood, with a brilliant past and currently involved with the top Italian brands of this segment.
“Our project is clear: repositioning the company in terms of organization and strategy, showing that, with our tradition and expertise, we are ready to offer new ideas! This is actually the continuation of the transition undertaken by the new owners a few years ago, when they called me to take the role of managing director; they realized it was time to start a new phase, to make a strong decision to leverage the evolution of the company, with the transition from a traditional, family-centric approach to a strong managerial vision.
The majority shareholder, Vertis SGR, decided to make this transition with new figures working to reposition the company”.
We felt this strong wind of change as soon as we came to Giulianova, in the huge manufacturing site of Italiana Bordi, where hundreds of decorative edges are created starting from the raw material. This feeling increased as we talked to the “people” of Italiana Bordi, who told us about a new level of involvement, strong participation, the awareness that here, just few kilometers from the gorgeous sea of the Abruzzo coast, a new game is being played…
“We want to send a clear message to the market”, said Francesco de Leva, president of Italiana Bordi. “The owners have launched a massive investment plan that will expand our footprint in the furniture industry, with new energy. This experience is characterized by a name that reaffirms the values of our company and the quality of “made in Italy”, the world we belong to. I have always dealt with business reorganization projects, but I consider each company a living being, not just a manufacturing and trading business; companies are organisms where people work, and you must share thoughts, approaches and visions.
This is the new challenge presented by the majority shareholder, a radical renovation to provide Italiana Bordi with an adequate organization, a unified corporate structure, built on the essential pillars you need to operate in today’s complex and challenging market”.
“We are living in a very fluid period and the current transformation presents plenty of difficulties”, added CEO Giovanni Gioli. “We were asked to optimize business management, maximizing the value of what we can do and maintaining the business continuity, an even tougher task in view of external factors such as the war in Ukraine or the provisioning problems of raw materials. However, we are optimistic, as we have managed to share a clear project, to create a strong team, while keeping product quality in the forefront and working to create a different image, a transparent company led by managers, with professional and competent people.
We are focusing our resource on the modernization of plants to meet ever-changing standards and regulations, with a special focus on sustainability”.
Today, Italiana Bordi employs 84 people and operates 13 extrusion lines for a daily production of 40 thousand kilos of edges, in a factory of 16 thousand square meters which probably means that we are the biggest edge manufacturer in Italy. Revenues are approximately 14 million euros, with a catalog that is constantly expanded with new additions, and now presented to customers all over the world in a new “dress”, a richer fan deck with visuals and packaging that immediately suggest how much things have changed.
“Italy remains our most important customer – Gioli said – although our expertise and production capacity have enabled us to build a significant portfolio abroad, including distributors, end customers, big subcontractors who work for the leading brands in furniture and home decoration retail. We can say that, wherever consistent quality and large volumes are requested, we are a reference partner.
We are always focused on the research of alternative materials to “our” Abs, where we are top specialists. Think about polypropylene or other options that we are testing for their “green” qualities compared to other materials, although you cannot deny that the final decisions in this industry are mainly driven by the availability of new formulations from our suppliers, i.e. the chemical industry giants that produce our raw materials. They have a sort of “blank proxy” for material innovation, also in the area of sustainability.
And then, as I mentioned, we also have to deal with raw material provisioning issues, so the actual availability of materials is often a key factor, in a scenario where you can expect major changes each day”.
From left: Giovanni Campanaro (quality manager), Giovanni Gioli (ceo), Francesco de Leva (president) e Massimiliano Tassoni (marketing e communication).
Mr. Gioli, all of this without forgetting sustainability, as you said…
“We have strong commitment in this area, with the constraints of raw material availability that inevitably affect our operations and decisions. For sure, the wood-furniture companies have all been moving into this direction in due time: recycled wood and materials, as well as reuse, are established approaches. The same is true for plants, which are replaced or upgraded to be less and less invasive.
Another big topic is the digitalization of production processes, from the measurement of industrial costs to the control of mixers that produce the material for our edges; the digital transition is gradually extending to the entire production process, so that you know in real time which and how much material is flowing through our machines, which silos it comes from, which drying process it underwent, and more information about the incoming materials”.
“Another significant achievement – add engineer Giovanni Campanaro, Quality manager of Italiana Bordi – is the Uni En Iso 9001 certification, also resulting from the standardization and changing process that has characterized the recent past and the present time of our company. It was not easy to achieve this result in such a short time, it’s a witness to the evolution of the company and the new potential we have today in human resources and production efficiency”.
“This is all part of the sharing process that is the foundation of our decisions”, Giovanni Gioli concluded. “We all must contribute to the success of our product, recognizing and supporting the professional qualities of each staff member to create a different, better, more effective organization. We are promoting this radical revolution quietly, continuing to do what we can do very well, to be reliable, to give quick and clear responses to the questions we receive”.
