A company focused on the value of people and on the potential of steel was born in the north of the Bologna metropolitan area. Zarri employs 40 people in an area covering over twenty thousand square metres, responding to the needs of over 4,000 customers, 30% of whom are abroad. Giampaolo Colletti interviews Franca Zarri, the company's CEO, for FARE INSIEME
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
Masterpieces are made of details. Even in mechanics. Indeed, especially in this field that is so difficult to describe and yet so essential because it sets machines and therefore industry in motion. Masterpieces are made of details, we were saying. And those we are about to discuss are linked to the production and supply of items obtained from metal wire. Solutions that are adopted for a variety of markets. Well, these masterpieces made of detail have inhabited the Emilian land since the 1970s. In Castello D’Argile, a town of six thousand souls north of the Bologna metropolitan area, there is a family-run company, which was established in 1973 and is now in its third generation. Welcome to Zarri, a company that reaches 10 million euros in turnover, 70% in the Italian market and the remaining 30% abroad. But let's take a step back in time. It all started with Giorgio Zarri, who was passionate about mechanics from a very young age, especially agricultural mechanics. So in the mid-1960s he decided to create a machine suitable for the mass production of U-bolts. U-bolts are highly sought after by system installers. A brilliant intuition. Zarri went from building the first manual prototypes to creating a machine for bending threaded rods into U-shapes, in various diameters and shapes. Meanwhile, Angelo, while still a student of mechanical engineering, became the technical mind of the company with his sister Franca, a sales manager, igniting the company. A family passion. The parents, Giorgio as a toolmaker and Alba in the production, became the operational arm of the artisan company. From the beginning to the present day: the company has employed 40 people and is recognised today as one of the Italian leaders specialised in the production of items obtained precisely from metal wire on a drawing through diversified production lines that allow the creation of other complex round and flat articles. Among the services there are structures composed of sheet metal, rod, tube, turned parts, plastic and rubber parts or even springs. And think that all actually started in a stable and that in the first fifty years of activity many challenges were faced, such as the fierce and unregulated competition from China and India.
Company profile. One company and a thousand different branches in the most varied sectors: agricultural and industrial mechanics, systems of all kinds, ceramics, indoor and outdoor furniture, playgrounds, construction, naval, gardening, lift systems, automation, gifts and fancy goods, livestock farming and much more. «We work on customer designs in subcontracting, but recently we also entered the market: we created a patent of our own for a finished product for the world of ceramics: a tile-laying machine of which we now have a standard version and one in co-branding with Mapei», says Franca Zarri, CEO of the company. Looking ahead, without stopping. This is also how we grow. The expansion works were completed this year, bringing the facility to 5,500 square metres of covered space, with a large machine park for the production of parts both according to customer design and to a standard catalogue. And then there is the automatic warehouse that has increased to 1,300 post pallets from the initial 700. A way to mark that “just in time” that becomes synonymous with customer care. «Attention to detail and quality is at the heart of our identity. We believe that people are the ones who give value to a company: a machine alone, without the human hand, does not work. The better the people who make up the companies, the more passion, interest, curiosity they put into it, the more respectful and stable the human relationships are, the more a company is capable of generating real value», says Zarri.
People and steel. The company transforms two thousand tons of steel every year. An essential raw material. «Without its transformation, the raw material remains inert, useless, shapeless. Giving shape to something so strong, resistant, and hard gives an enormous satisfaction. Shaping projects starting from scratch – from a simple raw material – is a daily magic. Working to the highest quality also means choosing the highest performing raw material, the best available on the market», says Zarri. After all, “with steel wire we shape your ideas” is one of the first slogans that accompany the company. A common thread that connects the past of mechanics to the present. Because we are forged by experience, but guided by innovation. «It is incredible to see how mechanics has evolved over all these years, but here the challenge is to keep alive what allowed it to be born, that is, fastening products, and then evolve by entering further sectors. To overcome these challenges, you need passion, dedication, attention to detail, the ability to work as a team and share ideas, to accept contributions and the desire to never stop learning and growing and to never feel as if you have reached the aim. Many of our employees entered the world of work within our company and have never left, in some cases from graduation to retirement. This is a point of great pride», specifies Zarri. A company with a green heart: photovoltaic panels have been installed on the roof of the production plant, guaranteeing more than 50% of the electricity. «Our history is based on the continuous development of projects and opportunities to be seized in the medium and long term. Global interconnectivity is essential for the development of the economy and ideas. But we are human beings, and proximity is a fundamental aspect of interconnection», concludes Zarri. Here then is the strength of the territory, which makes us go anywhere in the world.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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