Forty years ago, a company that became a leader in MRO, namely
Maintenance, Repair and Operations, was born in Emilia. The history of Fervi, a
team of almost two hundred employees and a turnover of 54 million euros. The
recipe for winning? «When
you have a high quality of life due to the territory, this well-being is
transferred to the work environment. It is a win-win logic.»
Giampaolo Colletti interviews Roberto Tunioli, President and CEO of Fervi for
Fare Insieme
di Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
There is an acronym behind the business of an Emilian company of
excellence and it is MRO, i.e. Maintenance,
Repair and Operations. It refers to all the activities, which are necessary
to keep production facilities and processes running smoothly. To build, to
maintain and to repair. In summary, to serve the customer in the best possible
way with a great operational efficiency and with two essential elements for the
value chain: buying things at the right
place and at the right price.
After all, these actions are the basis of Fervi, a reality born as early as
1978 as a wholesaler and at the time working only for the Modena district. But
in forty years many things evolve: so today the consolidated turnover is around
54 million euros and the company has a team of 180 employees spread over four
companies, one of which is based in Germany. The headquarters are in Vignola, a
town of twenty-five thousand souls in the province of Modena. The business is
70% in Italy and the remaining 30% of the foreign share is recorded mainly in
Europe, but without counting Great Britain. «In our sector, measurements count
a lot, so services are different if they are conveyed in metric measure, rather
than in inches or pounds. A change of this unit of measure would imply the
multiplication of warehouses. This is why the world operators are also
geographic poles», explains Roberto Tunioli, President and CEO of Fervi, and the
man responsible of the exponential growth of this reality.
The business coach
for other businesses. To explain the
positioning and therefore also the business, Tunioli refers to the weight of
Italian manufacturing in Europe. «We are
the second manufacturing nation in Europe and among the top ten in the
world and therefore there are thousands of factories, workshops and
laboratories to run. To do this you need skills and therefore qualified people.
Then you need state-of-the-art tools and maintenance products. We are, therefore, one of those
realities that help other companies to excel. We help them in their daily work, when they are in need of face
masks, gloves, wrenches, but also equipment for design workshops or drills,
most simply. It must be said that there is currently no Italian company among
the top ten in Europe as the top positions are occupied only by the Germans,
English and French. Although we have sixty thousand references in the world,
when I bought the company ten years ago we only had 2,800», Tunioli proudly
states. For this Emilian top manager who for twenty years worked in the giant
Datalogic, the entrepreneurial choice, with the relative investment of his own
liquidation, coincided with that of a life choice. «I wanted to be closer to my
family and after twenty years of technology and innovation I made a bet on a
mature market with a great potential», says Tunioli. On the other hand, in 2012
the company had a turnover of 10 million euros and had 20 employees, and
therefore in ten years the growth multiplied five-fold, between the internal
human resources and external acquisitions. The recipe lies in the investment of
over 50% of the profits in human resources, and in the successful processes
related to logistics and internationalisation. Then in 2018 the listing on the
Milan Stock Exchange. But the goal has remained the same as that of the early
days: to offer a complete service to companies. In the case of medium-large
enterprises, we provide maintenance, while in the case of the support for
craftsmen, we also sell the product they need to carry out their work and,
therefore, to keep the business running. Somehow you become a coach for those
who do business. A metaphor that stands the test of facts: to work day after
day you need constant training, adequate tools, teamwork. We study machines and
tools for industry and crafts. «We don't produce ourselves, but we do scouting
and go and search for the best things that are offered on the market worldwide.
This allows the scalability of the business because producing is difficult, but
here you must have the ability combined with the competence to send the right
people around the world to choose better products and solutions. This is why
our DNA is made up of courage and vision, in other words, knowing where you
want to go in order to achieve a medium-high performance at many points in the
value chain», argues Tunioli.
The win-win district.
Nowadays, human capital and the local area make the difference to be
successful. Tunioli is convinced of this, i.e. of the fact that this triangle
of innovation, developed between Modena, Ferrara and Bologna, presents those
unique district characteristics in the world: from packaging and automotive for
Bologna to ceramics and up to the biomedical supply chain for
Modena and chemistry for Ferrara. «It is a lucky and almost unique combination in the world, it must be
preserved in its uniqueness, which is linked to the people. Everything is
understood through the quality of life and we are in a fabulous territory. On
the other hand, our four companies are all located between Ozzano, Spilamberto,
Vignola and even our reality in Germany is located in a small town near Düsseldorf.
When people eat at home, they have very low expenses, they commute by bicycle
and have a very high level of social quality, which is all transferred to the
work environment. It is a win-win logic», Tunioli points out. We return to the
district of decades ago, which today is even more contemporary. On the other
hand, also due to the historical context we are "demetropolising",
and this implies a high social value linked to the community. But it does not
mean avoiding advanced digitisation processes. Indeed, quite the opposite. The
future is made up of ever more immediate services, designed on the needs of
customers and of a more volatile market. «Today we try to amplify the sales
channels, amplifying the various points of contact with the customer for the
transfer of the good - says Tunioli, and continues - The goal is to structure
ourselves better, by tracing the path and improving ourselves. The digital
transition allows us to evolve and the best thing to increase our growth is to
measure the performance and the actual use of the products.» Because digitising
also means making daily work easier.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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