From a small adhesive company based in Sassuolo,
in the province of Modena, created in 1968 through the brilliant intuition of
Romano Sghedoni, to an international colossus. This is the story of Kerakoll, a
company focused on innovation and sustainability. It’s only when you think
about the housing environment and its impact on the natural environment and on
people that you can draw new pages for the future. For FARE INSIEME, Giampaolo
Colletti interviews Romano, Fabio and Andrea Sghedoni
di Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
"Do you want to start at the beginning? You
must be curious, right?" Romano Sghedoni, founder and current President of
Kerakoll, an Emilian company that has turned into an international colossus
with a green heart, is joking on the phone. His story is well known and tells
of a stubborn journey against the grain. After all, that's how it was for this
young man with so many ideas floating in around in his head. At 19, he decided
to follow his brother’s professional path in his itinerant DIY shop. Instead of
just setting up shop, he went to the customers: carpenters, mechanical
workshops, painters, and anybody related to the purchase of paint. "I went
with him to learn how to sell these products. I have been doing this work for
ten years, but I found it a little unimaginative. It’s not that I had a high
opinion of myself, but I wanted to do more, even if I didn't know exactly what.
Then one day, in a snack bar in Sassuolo, a friend of mine told me that he saw
some special tins on the shelf of a hardware store in Bologna. Tins of glue for
tiles. When I heard that, I perked up,” says Romano Sghedoni, 84 years old and
President of Kerakoll Group. Well, that’s the genius of intuition. It’s the
idea of taking an extraordinary approach when most people settle for an
ordinary one. So while everybody else was making tiles, he decided to do
something different. He wanted to make the glue. He took the product purchased
in Bologna to his garage and experimented. "On the very day of purchase, I
decided to do a test. After a week, I tried to remove the glued tiles, but I
couldn't. I saw straight away a potential
product of the future: an innovative system for applying tiles to the
wall," says Romano Sghedoni. So it was that in 1968, with the backdrop of
lively student protests, this under-30 founded Kerakoll in his home laboratory
in Sassuolo, a company that is now a world leader in materials and solutions
for sustainable construction with an internationally recognized technological
record. The first single-component ceramic adhesives, designed and made
directly in the garage at home, are the result of his enthusiasm for construction,
his passion for chemistry, and his great love for engineering. "I still
remember all the people who didn't believe it could work. A decade later, I
invented a product that has made a fortune for the company." I’m talking
about H40, the powdered tile adhesive, a real novelty that was born in 1978. It
was the first adhesive to solve the problem of the safe bonding of high-fired
tiles and porcelain stoneware in all domestic and commercial environments.
"With H40, customers were calling and begging me to send them these
products. An extraordinary market response," concludes Romano Sghedoni.
The first factory was set up in Sassuolo in 1970. Then, in the 1980s, there was
relentless growth and the second plant was created.
Pillars of
success.
Kerakoll conveys a propensity for innovation in its name: it is a combination
of the Greek words keramikos and kolla. "We started small in 1968
and now we are in 12 countries, mainly in Europe, but also in two other places:
Brazil and India. For thirty years, we have been internationalizing, as this is
one of the four pillars, along with innovation, sustainability and organization
& people. This all means putting people at the centre. This innovative
attitude has never left us," says Fabio Sghedoni, Vice President of Kerakoll
Group. Hence the new product loading system, which optimizes space and time. Or
the development of the Genius Lab Building Platform, a platform based on
artificial intelligence, that makes everything more efficient. “We aim to take
advantage of new opportunities from outside the construction sector,” explains
Fabio Sghedoni. To understand how a small adhesive company has become an
international reality, you have to understand its culture. It is its vision,
which feeds on human capital, that makes all the difference. Today, Kerakoll
has two thousand employees worldwide with 17 manufacturing plants and has
closed 2021 with a strong growth turnover of over €600 million. “Government
incentives are an opportunity, but they are built on an already strong structure.
That is, they act like a flywheel, but on a solid industrial base. For people
today, there is a strong focus on the home as an area of potential
well-being," says Fabio Sghedoni.
Innovation with a green heart. But take heed. This
sustainable revolution is not an impromptu step. It is the result of steps
taken with the head as well as with the heart. With the new millennium, we supported sustainability, much earlier
than others and in a more structured manner: investments in green technology went from 15% to 50% of
the total R&D resources Kerakoll has an industrial conversion plan that
goes from chemical to eco-friendly. Goal: To reduce 60% of the solvents used in
the first five years, to develop new environmentally friendly, water-based and
low-emission products. Then in 2008, the construction of Kerakoll GreenLab
began: one of the most advanced technology centres in the world for the study
and development of new materials for sustainable construction. That is when the
first accolades and achievements began. In 2011, the Societé Générale de
Sourveillance, the world's most important system and certification control
body, issued the certificate that accredited the GreenBuilding Rating as a
reliable, complete and essential measurement method to ensure environmental
sustainability. In 2013, Kerakoll Greenlab was inaugurated, a forward-looking
research centre that brings together 9 specialized laboratories for the
development of eco-sustainable products, more than 140 bioconstruction
researchers and 1,500 instruments. A structure of 7,000 square meters of
surface area was created with an investment of 15 million euros. In 2013, it
was the first office building in Italy designed and built entirely in an
environmentally friendly manner; the perfect synthesis of advanced technology
and material sustainability. Kerakoll
is now one of the first mutual-aid societies in the construction industry.
"We have become a mutual-aid society for this reason too: We want to
pursue a commitment that we have had for years for the planet and its
people," explains Fabio Sghedoni. The
future depends on human beings. Eight years ago, Kerakoll launched a
recruitment plan for talented, gifted young graduates. A way to hire young
talent for five years and train them for an international career. Caring for
the environment and new resources is also the story of the third generation’s
entry into the company. This is Andrea Sghedoni, a young top manager with clear
ideas who has been at Kerakoll for two years. "We will continue to pursue
this vision that links innovation and sustainability. It's the best way to
write the new pages of the future."
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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