Founded in 1946 by Ardemagni family, Ardemagni spa is a joint venture between DITH (Duferco International Trading Holding) Group, international company specialized in the trading of steel and iron products and CSC Chiana Steel Corporation in Taiwan. Owing to Covid 19 emergency, the factory at Cinisello Balsamo stopped for one week only and then restarted with a new work organization that at present can guarantee around 80% of the manufacturing capacity.
“We have immediately activated the smart working for those activities that can be carried out from remote – explains Stefano Sacchi, CEO of the company – and we have reduced the staff working in the company also in the production department. Our company has not a high number of workers, we rely on 30 people and then we succeeded in conforming to distancing regulations. We worked with a single slitting line for about two weeks, then we received an important supply of masks from our Chinese parent company and also the first time of concern and confusion was overcome”. Workers’ tranquillity is a fundamental element, Sacchi underlines: for a company performing high-precision and high- risk processing operations, it is fundamental that workers are serene and focused, then assuring the staff’s safety was the priority issue.
In this way, the company could restart its processes and remain an important reference reality for its customers. Customers that, by 65% of the total, are headquartered outside Italian borders, in other European Countries, and then were not subjected to the drastic lockdowns that have concerned many Italian companies, including various competitors of Ardemagni. “For our customers – Sacchi confirms- it was essential to rely on a supplier that, despite the criticalities of the period, could guarantee deliveries. The only real problem we suffered was the difficulty in finding means of transport: we were affected by excessive demands for price rises that, I think, were not correct, especially considering the troubled national and European moment”.
Results proved this answer to emergency was correct: “In spite of all, in March we achieved a quite good turnover, which reached around 60-70% of the usual one and for April we expect to obtain a better performance, ending with 80% approximately. In the contingent situation, we can state we are fully satisfied”.
A result stemming also from the particular vicissitudes of the emergency: at present, various European competitors are still inactive and then Ardemagni is called to satisfy their customers’ demands, too, receiving orders that were not foreseen.
Nowadays with a marginal ranking in the household appliance sector, today Ardemagni is highly focused on the supply of products for electric cars “This business is steeply rising for the company – Sacchi specifies- due also to the excellent volumes implemented with a German customer, a blanking company, with which we have worked for two years and a half now. In view of these projects, we have also started the reorganization of a new factory, purchased two new slitting lines and relative packaging lines, to operate in this new sector at best”. However, an ambit affected by great uncertainty. “Electric car manufacturers will have to go on producing them, because compelled to have a certain number of electric models, but it is clear the sales of electric cars will drop considerably – so Sacchi summarizes the scenario – In a time of economic instability we are about to live, end users will hardly buy electric cars”.
Nevertheless, Ardemagni faces this prospect with positivity, due to its appurtenance to a big industrial Group, too: “we have made the investment, the building yard is ready to start again as soon as it is possible and in the short term we will have larger manufacturing premises. We will probably have to review the vision we had until some months ago but we wait for the fog of this moment to clear”.
