This spring we have arranged for a whole series of meetings with business people and companies for our students. Last week our friend Mike Calder, head of the global division of First American Financial’s title insurance operation, came through here on his way to London from California HQ.
This week we visited Gasparini, one of the world’s premiere manufacturers of metal roll forming machinery and machine tools. It is industrial manufacturing for B2B (business to business) sales and marketing, so it’s a bit out of the comfort range of most 19-20 year olds. But the meetings, talk, and factory tour were super.
Gasparini is located in Mirano, about 25 km outside Venice. The business started up in 1952 by the two Gasparini brothers, who had previously worked in machine and metal fabrication shops after World War II. They were creative and adventurous, and thought they could run their own business. At first they made small kitchen appliances like blenders and mixers. But then another company came to them and asked them if they could fabricate special pieces of metal that had bends, punched holes, and cuts. They studied the problem, and then decided they could. Shortly thereafter, instead of fabricating the metal pieces themselves, they decided it made more sense to manufacture the machines that fabricate the pieces.
In 2019 Gasparini sold about 40 million euros of such machines. They are one of five companies around the world that specialize in custom-made metal rolling machines for the special needs of their customers. They can uniquely bring together engineering, design, software, manufacturing, and local suppliers to solve any design issue presented by their customers. Their customers include Mercedes Benz and other automotive companies, as well as major power generation and construction firms across Europe and Asia. The machines they sell cost anywhere from 500k to 6 million euros each.
Three years ago they needed to expand, so they built a new facility. They purchased materials from companies who made the materials using roll forming machines that Gasparini had previously sold them. Their new 10k square meter facility is powered with photovoltaics, saving 250 tons of CO2 emission every year.
Today Gasparini is run by the two sons of the original founders, Filippo and Francesco Gasparini. After a presentation and Q&A session with Marco Brazzolotto, head of global marketing, Filippo walked around the factory with us. I commented that they were the cleanest factory floors I had ever seen, to which he responded “part of the culture of excellence we seek to create and maintain.”
To see a short video about Gasparini, click on this Youtube link:
2020 Vision of Venice 