From Modena to the entire world. PFB has been designing and producing lift components, which are 100% made in Italy, since 1964 and exports over 50% of its turnover to 60 countries with a team of 33 people for more than 2.6 million safety devices sold worldwide. Giampaolo Colletti interviews Riccardo Bevini, who now leads the family business together with his father Alberto, his partner Meri Pinzetta and his daughter Giulia, for FARE INSIEME
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
Life, as we know, is made up of climbs and descents. After all, those climbs are tiring, they seem endless, yet once you get to the top you enjoy a breathtaking view. The descents? They seem easier to tackle, after all the effort made to climb to the top. They may even seem like child's play, yet they are insidious because they deceive us with respect to what comes next. "The nature of man is not to always advance; it has its ups and downs". This is what the French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal wrote at the turn of the seventeenth century. Now, all this applies to the life of every individual and to that of companies.
Story of the company. The story we are about to tell has a lot to do with ups and downs. It is no coincidence that the company deals with lifts and, more specifically with safety components. But let's start from the beginning. It all started in a small family-run artisan factory that worked for third parties. We are back in 1959, when this company was still only called FB, that is, the initials of Franco Bevini. Only five years later, in 1964, the company became PFB thanks to the entry of two new partners Pinzetta and Baraldi. Ups and downs, as we were saying. The most difficult moment dates to the early 1980s, when two numerically controlled lathes were purchased, making an investment that was too large for the time. The second generation then brilliantly overcame the challenge, taking over and multiplying the turnover by 15 times. One choice, in particular, proved to be a winning one: shifting energy to its own production under the PFB brand, namely lift components that are still produced today, abandoning the third-party contracting that had accompanied the company up until that point. Following the sudden death of Franco Bevini in 1992, the management passed entirely to his children. In this case, the new generation led the company to international expansion, to the creation of a vast range of products and to the achievement of the goal of over 10 million euros in turnover. «The most satisfying moment? When, starting from the 2000s, the company positioned itself as a leader in the lift market and is still recognised as such throughout the world thanks to the offer of products with a high quality/price ratio and totally made in Italy, guaranteeing the utmost seriousness every day to customers from over 60 countries in the world.» So says Riccardo Bevini, a twenty-six-year-old born in Modena, third generation of the family business together with Giulia, who has been working in the company since 2017 together with another 33 people in the team for more than 2.6 million safety devices sold all over the world.
Company profile. We are in Modena, since 2005 in the new headquarters in the Torrazzi area. Here, lift components have been produced since 1964, exporting over 50% of the turnover. Speaking of elevation, here there is also an 8-metre test tower that allows us to perform unique tests in Italy on the products and that is used by certification bodies to approve the new devices we design every year. «We design and create products that will then be installed on lift, automatic or stacker crane systems. Our strength is linked to the quality of the product created by our engineers to last over time. We have safety products that have operated without needing replacement for over thirty years, saving the lives of thousands of people. Made in Italy allows us to export our know-how, showcasing the quality of the materials and workmanship that are – in most cases – carried out in Modena and its province. We stand out for our particularly efficient customer care: requests received from customers are handled within 24 hours in 90% of cases», Bevini specifies. Always looking higher, we could say. Even in the search for new materials. «Today we are in a phase of intense technical development. We have recently expanded our R&D office with a larger area and more workstations than before. The goals for the next three years are truly ambitious», says Bevini. Physical structures, but not only. Because behind these solutions there is a lot of digital in a never-ending process. The proof? In 2022 the company launched the PFB app on digital stores. An application that allows customers to have the PFB world in their pocket. Yes, the world. The world because they can explore the products with 360-degree photographs, understand the combinations between one product and another, have assembly tutorials and download all the technical documentation with a simple tap to have it available everywhere. They are very proud of it at PFB. «This last step alone has allowed us to save over 1 million sheets of paper every year. Our plans for the future? New product ranges and new surprises on the digital front.» This is the recipe for successful organisations. To always look higher, and to always aim higher.
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