Sustainability and innovation drive engineering company's global vision

Paolo Ramadori is chief executive officer of Officine Maccaferri Group, a worldwide manufacturer based in Italy that provides advanced solutions for the environmental engineering markets. He recently talked about the company's mission, vision and plans for the future, especially in China.

Mr Ramadori, would you please describe your company in a few words, and tell us about its vision and mission?

Founded in 1879, Officine Maccaferri will have its 140th birthday this year.

We have evolved from being an Italian company to a worldwide manufacturer in advanced solutions for the environmental engineering markets. Over these years, we have expanded in global reach and nowadays we are present in more than 100 countries, with 30 plants and more than 3,000 employees.

Our vision is to be a "trusted global partner, nurturing the world of tomorrow, harmonizing life and nature through innovative solutions".

The mission is to pursue excellence through continuous improvement while delivering to our customers engineered solutions that are innovative, advanced and environmentally friendly.

Finally, we are committed to outstanding safety, quality and sustainability, to create value for our stakeholders and our communities.

What's your view on China's environmental engineering market?

Over the last few years, the Chinese government has taken serious steps to improve the environment in the country, extensively investing in the improvement of the quality of life in megacities as well as in the countryside.

Among the initiatives taken by the Chinese authorities to enhance the standard of living, the ones related to infrastructure, transportation, hydraulic works and the oil and gas sectors, are considered the key elements of our local strategy.

Our plan is to continue to support the authorities in nurturing China's environmental protection initiatives, harmonizing life and nature through our innovative environmental engineered solutions.

Why are you considered among the leaders of the Chinese market?

We operate in several sectors, like transportation and urban infrastructure, river control works and mining.

Our solutions are used in erosion prevention of river banks, soil reinforcement and ground stabilization applications along major infrastructures, mitigation of rockfall and natural hazards, prevention of ground contamination in landfills projects and many other environmental works.

Retaining walls, innovative geo-synthetic materials and rockfall protection systems are the basis of our offering in China.

We provide our customers with high-quality engineered solutions, outstanding performance and on-time delivery.

We are not only considered a market leader, but also a close partner to our clients. Working side by side with them, we offer technical expertise to deliver cost-effective and environmentally sound solutions like our Polimac, an innovative green solution developed to withstand very aggressive exposure conditions in hydraulic and geo-technical applications.

How are you organized in China? Do you have engineering hubs, factories or service centers?

Despite being a 140-year-old company, we have been present in China since 2004 and we have established three local joint ventures since 2006.

Our engineering and manufacturing hubs are based in Tianjin and Changsha. The wire rod production joint venture is located in Hangzhou.

In line with our strategy Horizon 2022, we are reinforcing our presence in the country by hiring highly qualified and talented people, by having temporary expatriates for their training and mentoring and by investing in the modernization of the manufacturing plants.

To provide our Chinese customers with the best-in-class solutions, it is worth mentioning that we are engineering and manufacturing our local products with the same standards, technologies and processes used in the rest of the world.

Are you planning to expand your business in China? In which sectors?

China is and will be one of the pillars of our strategy Horizon 2022 and beyond.

We are planning to invest locally, to foster the organic growth of the business in all sectors we participate in, and in all adjacent ones addressable with our products.

By reinforcing technical sales, business development, customer care, supply management and manufacturing, we aspire to double our turnover by 2022.

(China Daily 03/22/2019 page19)