The latest evolution of the ceramic group Rondine Group, which in 2006 had acquired the private equity fund Progressio Sgr, ended with the arrival of the Turks from Seramiksan, who entered the company's capital with a 50% stake.
This is an acquisition with a strong symbolic value, which involves the historic ceramic district of Emilia (precisely the northern branch of Rubiera) and which follows by a few days another expansion operation by a Turkish group, Kutahya Seramik, which will open a 2000 square meter showroom in Fiorano Modenese, still in the heart of the made in Italy tile.
But the Rondine Group, which has 296 employees and a turnover of 63 million euros in 2012, is hoping for a new spring.
“From my point of view, we have just signed an industrial partnership, which opens up global markets to us at a time of strong weakness in domestic demand. We have liked each other since the first meeting, a year ago, with the Demirdover family which has controlled Seramiksan for four generations and now we aim to develop synergies on research and technologies together, integrating our productions” says Lauro Giacobazzi, president and CEO of Rondine Group .
Precisely the possibility of exploiting the enormous market potential of the Mediterranean basin was the leitmotiv of the alliance. The Rubierese group has been ensured the widest managerial autonomy and access to fresh resources from the Turkish partner which also allow it to study possible production expansions.
“Turkish ceramic producers are experiencing our boom of the XNUMXs, with domestic demand absorbing almost all production, raw materials behind the factory and sparing no expense when it comes to investing” Giacobazzi always observes.
In the first three months of this year, Rondine has already grown by 23%, continues the CEO, and expects to maintain a trend above 15% between now and December.
The integration between two apparently distant realities, on the other hand, appears quite easy. The Turkish ceramic industry is in fact the daughter of a trend of development of the Italian ceramic industry, and of Sassuolo in particular: that of the offer of machinery and even entire “turnkey” factories. This allows the two companies to speak the same language in terms of technology, glazes, processes or suppliers. The segment of the production of machinery for the ceramic sector is a rare case in which Italy sets the standards.
This is the usual way to avoid being ousted by the most aggressive foreign competitors. To put it in Giacobazzi's words, we must “always be pioneers of innovation and design. The innovations on the market are and must always be ours.”
