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Home > CANADA > Spotlight
ALESSANDRO RIELLO: AERMEC, THE REALITY OF A UTOPIA
Rome (Ign) - "I might sound like a utopian, but I believe that the North-East and Italy as a whole have the potential to fend off any type of competition, even unfair competition. To do so, however, we have to invest in our desire to remain Italian". This is how Alessandro Riello, vice-chairman and chief executive of Aermec, replies to those who ask him what the Italian industrial system needs to do to respond to the challenges of globalisation. For over 40 years Aermec has been designing and producing air conditioning systems. With a catalogue which ranges from small air-conditioners to large system machinery, it is today the leading Italian brand in the sector.
Yours is the story of an Italian company that competes with major multinationals in a highly competitive sector. What is your secret?
Aermec is a historic brand: we have the honour of having been the first in Europe to produce air-conditioning appliances, under the Riello Condizionatori brand. But we have also been able to innovate in a sector which has changed rapidly, and from small single block appliances we moved on to highly developed systems. Today Aermec produces appliances covering the entire range of the market, from low and medium to high power (i.e. 2000 kw), and also use exclusive technologies, such as in our convector fans. Today our turnover is €150 m, we have 560 employees and export 35% of our products. And in April we will debut at the Bolshoi! In fact, we have won a highly prestigious contract to supply the air-conditioning systems for the Moscow theatre.
There is a lot of talk about family run businesses, and many analysts of the Italian industrial system consider this the real hindrance to company growth. Yours, however, is a success story. Why?
Because my father Giordano, our founder, was extremely farsighted. He realised that both Raffaella and I would wish to follow his path. And he gave both of us the chance to start an independent activity, in my case Rpm - which produces electrical motors - and in my sister's the production of air conditioning systems. This way we both had the possibility to train and make decisions in a smaller environments before moving on to a larger company. Today everything is so much easier precisely thanks to this prior period of training.
It is said that our production focus should shift towards products with greater added value, abandoning "dead branches" and obsolete production lines. What is your opinion?
It's a complex issue, and is difficult to provide formulas that work for all sectors. I think that we have to start by discussing identity from the industrial point of view. At Riello we have chosen to compete by investing in research, innovation and automation: this is the only way we can satisfy the demands of the top customers. Italian businessman must not forget that they have well-defined roots: and that if we give up on manufacturing and focus on services, as we are often encouraged to do, we will make little progress. We need industry in this country, we really do!
Your family - together with the Benetton and Del Vecchio families - is considered one of the institutions of the North-East, an area with its flourishing "molecular capitalism" which has however been through a difficult period. What does it need to do to become once more a model for the country?
Personally, I have never agreed with those who talked about the North-East development model, for the simple reason that that's not how things are. Ours is not a totally functional and reproducible system. In Veneto we have the unique advantage of a hard working population without the historically consolidated industrialisation of the North West, which had the good fortune of a situation where secondary industry could grow around large companies such as Fiat. We on the other hand have had to organise ourselves entirely, exploiting our potential; and we have successfully managed to do so. We still have the potential, all we need to do is focus on it. We have already come out on top once, so why shouldn't we do so again?
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