In Castel Guelfo di Bologna, in the heart of the Packaging Valley, there is a company set up in the 1990s that rapidly established itself as a model of innovative service for clients. Today, Airfluid's presence in the industrial supply market is due to a lucky intuition: understanding the shift from merely new products to new application solutions. For FARE INSIEME, Giampaolo Colletti interviewed Stefano Battelani, General Manager at Airfluid.
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
Markets are
conversations reads the famous Cluetrain Manifesto drawn up by a group of
academics in 1999. Those 95 theses presented as a manifesto were a call to
action for all companies. But those markets are increasingly moving, subjected
to new stimuli, pushed by internal and external solicitations. Nothing remains
still, unchanged, static. There, the story we are about to tell you reveals
precisely this intuition: the markets - with their products, services and
solutions - are always on the move. There are some who grasped this aspect
already in the late 1980s and were then, like now, so convinced by it as to
build a company around it. We find ourselves in Castel Guelfo di Bologna, a
town of 5,000 people near Imola, and more precisely in an area known as Poggio
Piccolo, a stone’s throw from the motorway exit of Castel San Pietro connecting
Emilia and Romagna, surrounded by leading packaging brands. It is not by chance
that Aifluid was born here, in the beating heart of the Packaging Valley that
churns out innovations and solutions for clients hungry for the future.
The birth of
a model. “It was precisely at the end of the 1980s, as I reflected on the
business model that existed at the time, that I understood that the market for
industrial supplies was changing. It was moving from the curiosity linked with
new products to needs for application solutions. Thus, in 1990, I decided to
set up a business from scratch, but with the freedom of setting up a model that
meets the market’s increasing needs. This model involved a very precise
organisational model capable of offering a complete service to then offer
solutions with an added value,” recalls Stefano Battelani, General Manager at
Airfluid. Thirty-three years after this formula was launched, the idea proved a
winning one as it managed to retain customers. Today, Airfluid boasts an agile
and skilled team, 25 employees with an average age of less than 40. It
approaches the Italian market directly, while it deals with the global one via
its clients who export complete systems. The expected turnover for 2023 is of
around €4 million, 10% more year on year. Referring
to the beginnings, Battelani remembers an empty warehouse and building his
desk, which he still keeps today, and the enthusiasm of a new adventure. "The
most satisfying moment was when finally, after many years of working in human
resources, I had the feeling and the tangible proof of having built a real
team. I believe that a chain of values is based on human capital, a sense of
community and keeping up with the times thanks to innovative systems,” explains
Battelani.
Company
profile. Today, Airfluid is a global partner for the support and supply of
components for industrial automation: transport systems, structures and
customised production lines are studied, designed and manufactured, as well as
systems for the distribution of compressed air and inert gases. “What is most
important for us? Being able to support clients in the development of their
ideas and needs with complete and performing solutions. Plus offering
diversified products and services capable of meeting a good part of their
production needs,” stresses Battelani. Easier said than done. Yet Airfluid
managed to become a travel companion for hundreds of companies. Almost 700. The
company deals with automation, lubrication and transport systems as well as
structures and systems for vacuum, compressed air, gases and low-pressure
fluids. The services are potentially suitable for multiple companies: from
manufacturers of machines and automatic systems to final users such as
production plants, from the food to the mechanical sectors. Thus doing business
is never static, it forms part of an ever-changing context that adapts to
market flows. People and technology, two closely linked elements. Because human
capital reflects in technological capital and forms a winning combination. “For
us, technology came in to facilitate and improve our organisational and
production flows with industry 4.0 equipment. We like to define ourselves
technical yet friendly: we believe that communicating specific concepts in a
clear and involving manner reaches our interlocutors in a more effective way,
making us recognisable,” says Battelani. Once again, their strength lies in the
districts, which must not lose their identity while being increasingly
interconnected. Of that Battelani is convinced. “It is undeniable that
globalisation has connected the markets, but that is why it is important to let
the territorial identity emerge as a trademark, taking the name of our region
beyond borders as a symbol of excellence.”
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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