In 1971, a company was set up between Bologna
and Modena that has since become a leader in the world of bolts, screws and
metal fixing products. Today, Bulloneria Emiliana boasts four facilities and
clients all over the world with a turnover of €10 million, but people are what
makes the difference. For FARE INSIEME, Giampaolo Colletti interviews Gian
Marco Dalpane, CEO of Bulloneria Emiliana
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
If you think about
it, a bolt is something small, very small actually, sometimes miniature. Though
it is powerful, very powerful because each single bolt makes it possible to
build bridges, roads, industries, machines, houses and entire cities. Bolt after
bolt, day after day. There, the story I am about to tell you starts from
something very small, yet destined to become very big. Just like a bolt. And it
starts with the idea that each day, combined with the next one, can lead to
real revolutions.
One idea, one company. After all, this is what happened in the life of Luigi Dalpane and his
wife Marisa Mazzetti. At the start of his career, Luigi was a delivery man for
a shop. But he had a good brain and a lot of heart. And his wife was by his
side right from the start. Just think that, from an idea that came to them
almost by chance, together they built up an empire. Bulloneria Emilia was set
up between Bologna and Modena in 1971 and has since become a leader in the
world of bolts, screws and metal fixing products. Everything started from a
small space that was just slightly bigger than a garage, asking only a few
producers and friends for supplies who, in the beginning, agreed to the sale of
their products without great financial coverage. “The initial intuition came from my mother
and father, who strongly wished to insert themselves in a sector they believed
to be strategic: screws go everywhere. At the time, my father worked in a shop,
while my mother was capable of dealing with the accounting. They did not study,
but they took advantage of this idea and the company was born,” recalls Gian
Marco Dalpane, who is now the second generation in charge of Bulloneria
Emiliana. He soaked in this reality since he was a child. Just think that, the
day after he got his diploma as an accountant, instead of celebrating in town,
his father asked him to pop by because he needed him. Gian Marco never left. He
recalls it with a smile. “My father was an agent, then they set up their
business not in their city of Bologna, but in Modena. They did so for two
reasons: dad already had contacts there and then it was easier to start from a
logistical point of view,” says Dalpane. Today, fifty years later, the company
boasts four facilities: the first in San Cesario, between Bologna and Modena.
Then two storage spaces in Orio Sopra (Bergamo) and Imola. Plus there is a
subsidiary in Trofarello (Turin).
Company profile. As we have already said, the headquarters is in San Cesario. A transit
area, a trade area and a logistics hub near the via Emilia axis. It covers over
8,000 sq m, 4,000 of which are covered. But there is more. The company also
features over 5,000 pallet stations for vertical storage, as well as delivery
vans, forklifts, transpallets, scales and electronic piece counters, automatic
box and bag fillers, readers and radio-frequency. Bulloneria Emiliana
employs 30 people with a turnover of €10 million a year. “Our product has an
extremely low cost and all the tools possible to make processing quick and
precise are needed to have excellent performance in the controls and
preparation of goods, which translates into increased competitiveness,”
stresses Dalpane. A hi-tech company that preserves the past while looking to
the future. The company was the first in Italy that learned to manage all
warehouse movements with radiofrequency readers and all incoming batches: this
way it is possible to trace the provenance and origin of products even after
many years. In addition, it was also among the first to certify its quality
system way back in 1997. “The love for this work and our professionalism
remained unvaried. We innovated all the services rendered to the clientèle,
completing our process with tools useful to maintaining the traceability of
batches, restocking or for logistic services,” says Dalpane.
A global
company. Bulloneria Emiliana collaborates with dozens of producers all over the
world from China, Turkey and Taiwan to the whole of Europe. After all, our
market is ‘global’ so we need to purchase globally in order to be able to be
competitive locally as in the rest of the world.
But
what is necessary to be a successful company? Dalpane has no doubts.
“There is no company without the people who work for it. That is why we try to
stimulate all colleagues with a welfare system that includes all benefit
levels. In addition, we signed a supplementary private insurance as colleagues
who work well and who are serene are the best calling card for the company.”
Once again, successful organizations look after their people, their most
precious asset.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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