Failed twice and, despite the attractiveness of the brand (Italian and operant of the kitchen) passed through four auctions without buyers, for the historic Nardi company, at the end of 2017 the lone rider arrived not from Europe but from the Maghreb, from Algeria. Who bought the brand at a really bargain price, saving it from a definitive disappearance.
This is how Condor Electronics, founded in the 50s by a skilled entrepreneur from the Hauts Plateaux, Mohamed Tahar Benhamadi, paid out 700 euros for a brand that is worth much more. Very good at coming forward at the right moment, the Benhamadis, immediately after the acquisition, dismantled the factory and lines (in the Treviso area) to take them to Algeria where at the end of July they will present the new plant to the European press, in Bordj Bou Arrereidj.
A relocation to Algeria which will make it possible to produce the still current collections of recessed luminaires under the Nardi brand, at competitive prices and according to the level of Italian quality and design to which Marco Nardi, one of the sons of the company's founder, has always remained loyal. What is surprising is that, despite the great difficulties, with an often interrupted and in any case reduced industrial activity, with numerous layoffs, Nardi continued to resist, exporting almost all the 700 household appliances manufactured in the factory near Treviso.
It is on the notoriety of the brand, on the "Italianness" which quality symbol for built-in cooking that Nardi has however maintained some positions in Russia, the Middle East, Australia and Latin America. The Algerian company has certainly made a good deal. Abderrahmane Benahamadi recognized this when he declared: “Nardi manufactures a single type of household appliance, but it does it very well, with patents and an international level. And almost all of the devices that will be produced in Algeria will be exported thanks to Nardi's international distribution network".
That it had patents and enjoyed international credibility was known to all. In the drawer - as they say - he had several innovations and many knew it. It is no coincidence that Marco Nardi had reported the theft of six concepts for projects with a high hi-tech content in recent months.
CONDOR AND CEVITAL, THE ALGERIAN GIANTS
But who is Condor Electronics? In the 50s, the founder began to import the first satellite receivers, then set up production lines for components for televisions, televisions and air conditioners. So on the eve of the colossal boom in cell phones, the group receives numerous offers from multinationals to sell everything. Offers that are rejected and indeed the business expands to the production of smartphones with the launch of the first entirely Algerian smartphpne in 2013.
The export of LED screens, smartphones and household appliances to North Africa and Europe also begins. Industrial activities are increasingly differentiated and sectors such as construction, information technology, agri-food, transport and logistics are added. The conglomerate has a turnover of more than 514 million euros with 6.500 employees and direct exports to 50 countries.
Condor is one of the big Algerians who have grown very rapidly in recent decades; among these also Cevital which in 2014 had acquired the Piombino steelworks which, after years of stalemate, had to sell to the Indian Jindal. But Cevital has some other setbacks behind it. Which concerns us closely because in 2014 it absorbed Fagor Brandt, the remains of the empire of the white Brandt Electromenager-Moulinex of the Nocivelli brothers, which went bankrupt and was acquired by an Israeli group which dismantled it and then sold it to the Spanish Fagor.
Which, in turn, reduced to surviving with minimal market shares, was bought by Cevital which was supposed to relaunch it and avoid the closure of the French factories. Today, the Brandt factories are in Algeria. The relocation begins to take the road of North Africa where the presence of a middle class and an increasingly educated population creates the best conditions for manufacturing consumer goods locally.
