In Zola Predosa (Bologna), there is a cleaning
company which, over the years, has become a leader when it comes to facility
management and integrated logistics. It employs 450 people with a consolidated
turnover of €12 million. From Emilia, it looks towards Milan and Florence. For
FARE INSIEME, Giampaolo Colletti interviews Flavio Guastafierro, CEO of La
Petroniana
di Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
He who hesitates is lost. Because today, to
do business, you need a head resting firmly on your shoulders, a heart beating
strongly as regards new projects and ears pricked up to grasp market evolutions,
those weak signals destined to become stronger and stronger. Imagine, for
example, the Copernican Revolution linked to the cleaning and sanitising sector,
also due to the emergency caused by a pandemic which has yet to disappear. Without
those pricked up ears, it would not have been possible to face difficulties and
grasp opportunities. Flavio Guastafierro, CEO of La Petroniana, a Bologna
company celebrating its 41st anniversary in 2022, knows this only too well. “We were born as a simple cleaning company
between the late 1970s and early 1980s thanks to my mother Maria Santucci and
my father Vincenzo Guastafierro. My parents are no longer with me, but their
vision has remained intact. Over time, we managed to reinvent ourselves
maintaining our initial DNA and adding new tiles to the mosaic, because the
world we live in is increasingly complex. My father, who was born in Salerno
and later moved to Bologna, always paid great attention to innovation when it
came to the machinery used, the products purchased and the training given to
our people. We were among the first businesses in Italy to use high-performance
hi-tech machinery,” reports Guastafierro. Today, La Petroniana
defines itself as a people company. “Because our attention is focused mainly on
people. There are the internal ones, i.e. our extended family. Then there are
the clients. Their demands have evolved over time, especially during this
emergency phase. Inevitably, we found it difficult at first to understand the
new context, because no one knew how to deal with the situation. Then, however,
the winning key was working together with clients, using clinical studies and
research to understand how to optimise sanitisation and focusing on team work,”
recalls Guastafierro. Yes,
the team. The company boasts 450 employees and a consolidated turnover of €12 million
in 2021, expected to reach €14 million in 2022.
Multiple
companies, one vision, many clients. We find ourselves in Zola Predosa, a town of twenty
thousand inhabitants in the Bologna metropolitan area. But, from here, we look
north, towards Milan. And west, towards Prato and Florence. In 2019, logistics
was added to the already-varied activities part of Facility Management. The objective was to provide clients with an
even more exhaustive service. Multiple companies, one vision, many clients - after
all, this is the key to understanding the transformation. Today, the group is made up of
two companies: La Petroniana, with its headquarters in Bologna and the
operative branch in Milan, and Petroniana Logistics, set up with the two
partners Carlo Fancinelli and Paride Cinieri. A start-up that has
already achieved a substantial result: the saving of local porterage
cooperative Intercoser. “We work for medium and large businesses that require
quality and flexibility as an added value, but we have decided to look beyond
this: this is how the idea was born to help our clients further in the
management of mechanical and electronic systems. After all, buildings must be
managed by someone trustworthy, this is where we come in. Security is a very
delicate matter today and it must be managed as best as possible. In addition
to the in-house management of company
warehouses, we deal with packaging loading and downloading: we have 150 people
who follow clients all over the region», reports Guastafierro.
Never
stop, but always train. It may seem a slogan but, after all, all La Petroniana
activities focuses on ongoing and transversal training. Because training
actually plays an essential role in reaching the objectives and maintaining
quality high. «The ongoing training programme involves the entire staff: one
part is linked to cleaning activities
and another to all other sectors. But the utmost attention is dedicated to
safety at work. This is provided for all company figures involved and it is essential
for us and for our clients. It’s at the base of our mutual trust,” concludes
Guastafierro. There we have it - trust. That precious treasure made from the
relationships that only enlightened companies can protect and improve over time.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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