In the heart of the Emilian biomedical district
there is a company that has become a world reference for the production and
marketing of advanced medical devices for extracorporeal circulation,
cardiopulmonary support, heart surgery and orthopaedics. From Medolla to the
rest of the world. Today Eurosets relies on almost 300 professionals, 5
branches and a turnover of almost 50 million euros. Giampaolo Colletti
interviews Antonio Petralia (CEO of Eurosets), Giovanni Avanzini (Global Sales
Director) and Mario Calzolari (Operations Director) for FARE INSIEME
of Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
Watchword: resilience. That
is, the ability to cope positively with traumatic events and to reorganise
one's life and work in the face of difficulties. Or even more. To reinvent
oneself while remaining sensitive to the opportunities that the context
presents, without ever alienating one's proper identity. After all, the word
resilience is the best defining Eurosets, an excellence that was born in the
early nineties in the heart of that Emilian biomedical district that the whole
world envies us. The company is based in Medolla, a town of just over six
thousand souls in the lower Po valley, a short distance from Modena. A land
dedicated to work, sacrifice, to sharing, and to being and truly building a
community. A land, however, affected by floods and earthquakes, which the
community has always faced in a resilient way. Here is the word resilience again.
Story
of an excellence. But let's proceed in order and return to Eurosets. This company is
specialised in the production and marketing of advanced medical devices for
extracorporeal circulation, cardiopulmonary support, heart surgery and
orthopaedics. «The mission is to introduce innovation into traditional
solutions. All this means not only creating new products, but also having a
different approach that brings Eurosets closer to healthcare personnel,
becoming more receptive and able to respond to needs in a practical way», says Antonio
Petralia, CEO of Eurosets. It all started in 1991: at the beginning the
production line concentrated on the production of semi-finished components and
devices, then in 1998 the acquisition by the Villa Maria Group took place, the
second largest Italian private hospital group. This acquisition boosted growth:
work thus began on some biomedical devices, such as those for chest drainage
and post-operative auto transfusion systems. «Being part of a private hospital
group allows us to be close to patients, to the healthcare personnel and to be
updated on how surgical techniques change with time. This represents a
distinctive feature for our positioning on the market and thanks to listening
to healthcare personnel we are able to collect inputs and transmit them to our
products, thus responding to sometimes latent needs», says Giovanni Avanzini,
Global Sales Director of Eurosets. In 2012 the earthquake heavily damaged the
headquarters. But we didn't give up and chose to build a new headquarters from
scratch, which was inaugurated in 2016: over 31,000 square metres with very
high safety standards. In record time, i.e. within a month of the earthquake, a
new delocalised production started in Bastiglia, which allowed us to close the
year without suffering losses, but quite the opposite, i.e. increasing our turnover
compared to previous years. Then in 2014 we were affected by the flooding of
the Secchia river, which flooded our warehouses and production offices. But
again we started without stopping after only three weeks of refurbishing. Here
comes the term resilience again. In
2015, three new offices opened in France, Germany and Belgium. In 2019 a new
branch was established in China and again in 2020 the one in England. Today,
270 people work in the company, over 70% of women and with an average age of 44
years old. Eighty % of the 2021 turnover is generated abroad and in the last
three years the growth has been double zero, with a forecast of 50 million
euros for 2022.
Between research and development. We have been able to
design finished products and equipment thanks to the constant investments in
research and development. Today 16 technicians work in R&D. They are
engineers, biologists, university researchers. The assembly machines are also
designed here. And then there is the quality sector with more strict
regulations that need to be monitored constantly. Right, research. Over the
years, investments have increased from 10% to 15% of turnover. We follow the
patient in every area, from hospitalisation to returning home. And do it with
intuitions put into a system thanks to a lot of innovation. So over the years
Eurosets has filed over 45 international patents. «The vision is to help people
get back to doing what they love the most, listening to the therapeutic needs
of healthcare personnel and putting the patient at the centre of the company's
production. By developing devices capable of responding to clinical situations
in which the patient does not find benefit. The orientation is to introduce
innovation in traditional therapeutic solutions. These are devices that can not
only be used in hospitals but also adopted in contexts other than hospitals.
This makes it possible to reach the patient wherever he/she is and to be
increasingly close to the healthcare personnel», Petralia points
out. But the difference is made by the territory. «It has allowed us to create
and develop the professionalism necessary for this type of work. It is
interesting to ask the question: why do even large biomedical multinationals
maintain their production in the Biomedical Valley? Because this is where you
find professionalism», says Mario Calzolari, Operations Director of
Eurosets. The goal in the future is to introduce new devices on the market
capable of responding to different therapeutic needs and to be the leaders in
the interventional sector. «An example is Colibrì, the smallest and lightest
life-saving device on the market. Thanks to its backpack specifically designed
for transport, also suitable for travel by drone or by helicopter by way of its
hoistable hook, it allows healthcare personnel to reach patients wherever they
are», concludes Calzolari. So we try to design the
future starting from the needs of healthcare professionals and of patients.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
Read the other interviews
