MGG NORTH AMERICA

President Gianfranco Marcon, MGG North America CEO Alberto Voltolina and Loris Maestrutti, CEO of MGG Group (Left to Right)

BRINGS NEW SOLUTIONS TO THE US

With a solid footprint of more than 50 single machines already sold into the North American market, MGG has taken the next step by launching MGG North America as a new company this past year. Based in Charlotte, N.C., the new company has a targeted strategy for serving the continent. At the 2022 ABMA Convention, Brushware was fortunate to be offered the opportunity to sit with four of the company’s top leaders to learn more about the North American plan. MGG President Gianfranco Marcon, Loris Maestrutti, CEO of MGG Group, Veronica Marcon, Sales Director, and new MGG North America CEO Alberto Voltolina all took part in the in-depth interview session and we are pleased to present that conversation.

Can you tell our readers a little bit about your strategic move to North America with the new office in Charlotte?

LORIS MAESTRUTTI: We are participating in the ABMA Convention for the first time, and what is important is that MGG North America is now part of ABMA, along with the parent MGG company in Italy.

In the paintbrush segment, I think we are the most advanced technology company. We have a one plant, one line solution for complete paintbrush production that is composed of 15 to 18 machines, automatic control in cascade, 4.0 connection, ERP connection, database on the product and more than 10 touch screens. At this point, I think we are the only company able to produce flat, angular paintbrushes and rollers in fully automated lines.

ALBERTO VOLTOLINA: First, to be clear, it is a company, not a branch office. We are going to take all the projects in the region through MGG North America and the customer is going to deal with the team in Charlotte, specifically with me and our service contact. The overall concept is to provide a dedicated team that can help our customers in advisory service maintenance with 24/7 service. If the customer has a problem, they have somebody here in North America. With the push of a button, we are there for our customers.

Secondly, the idea is to have a sort of consignment stock for spare parts, which means that all of our customers can identify through MGG North America any spare parts needed — strategic ones we can inventory in Charlotte. As soon as the customer needs a spare part, they push the button and we ship in three to five days to any location in North America. This avoids waiting for a couple of months and is a key benefit during this time when the supply chain is struggling.

The strategy seems to be paying off as MGG North America has already produced a new agreement with the Delaware Paint Company (DPC), correct?

LORIS: They do paintbrushes that are produced by hand. When we met Pete Newton, president of DPC, this past summer, he said that it is sometimes difficult to find people. So now, he has the vision to make this step to have less human intervention, while increasing production and more repeatability.

When you do the paintbrushes by hand, the repeatability is not always guaranteed! With our lines, our customers can assure an increase in quality to the end-user as all of the brushes produced have the same quality. We have sold to DPC the first machine in the world that can automatically manufacture brushes that are orthogonal or have an angle. The machine has a tiltable cradle and the feeding line is always in the middle. The machine spreads around the glue homogeneously on the head, which means a big saving and consistency. Otherwise, the risk is that you have more glue in the center of the brush and less on the ends.

That’s a great innovation and quite helpful to paintbrush manufacturers.

LORIS: Let me say that MGG has always had a fixed point in mind thanks to the vision of the president, Gianfranco. There are not many companies that keep their focus through the years. We have a concrete vision for a total production plant inside the company.

So we designed the machine line. Our machines have been designed with a high percentage of aluminum for the frame. Because it’s flexible with our equipment in the paintbrush line, but also paintbrushes don’t have dynamic loads. There is no big inertia in the machine, so it’s very important to use flexible raw material, while maintaining structural strength.

So we use extruded beams to create the frame. And the upper frame is mounted on a lower frame in steel — just to give the rigidity. When you lift up the frame with the crane, it has a rigid base. So all these things, were considered when building the MGG machine line.

What gives MGG the edge in designing paintbrush machines?

LORIS: The brother of Gianfranco, Maurizio, is our senior expert and is a key resource for the development department. Because he’s still working in the paintbrush company he’s still producing. So, he knows where the problems are for the brush producer that engineers may not understand. But those who put their hands on the brush know how to modify, how to make and improve the characteristics and the performance. For us, Maurizio is a big asset in that regard.

ALBERTO: And because we are now touring all around the United States, you can have a big customer which produces high volume. And, you can have another customer who produces niche and quality. So, let’s be clear, our machines are not only for the customer looking to produce volume. Our machines are also customized for customers that want to maintain a primarily manual workflow. We can solve certain headaches that they can have, by putting in specific automation capabilities without investing in an entire line.

We also produce lines for rollers. This is important because the market is moving in that direction as well. And there are plenty of producers. So MGG can also supply those kinds of lines.

Gianfranco Marcon and Veronica Marcon

That’s quite a bit of coverage. Are you solely focused on the paintbrush and paint products market?

ALBERTO: Even tomorrow we will have certain meetings not only with paintbrush manufacturers, but we are open to promote these products to all brush companies. If a manufacturer wants to verticalize, then it can be a good idea for somebody that has additional ferrules or other materials to put in new machines. That doesn’t mean the entire line, but you can put an assembly machine, epoxy resin machine, and manually produce certain products.

In North America, we have a good connection with customers because we have more than 50 machines already placed. Not full lines, but single machines. That means the customers are recognizing that in the past that we did a very good job. So it’s just a matter to maintain and improve. We’re not starting from zero, there is already a solid base.

You mentioned earlier the emphasis on speed for delivery of spare parts and service support overall. Can you tell our readers more about the MGG approach in this area?

LORIS: We have just bought three big storage systems, automatically controlled by computer. You can recall practically every part for our machines by code. Everything is in the cloud, and so you can call the cassette and all the pieces commercial or internal to produce the machine will be automatically gathered.

Thanks to that, even during the COVID situation, we were able to supply four complete plants this year. We have, thanks to the storage system, maintained our contract commitments despite the challenges with the supply chain.

VERONICA MARCON: I think one of the strongest points is the service for our company. We try to give the service in no time for our customers. Because we are working with international customers, we have different times in different countries. We want to avoid downtime in production for our customers, so we’ve been working on a new project now for two years called Service On-Site. It’s an application that customers can have on a tablet or phone. When you log in as a customer, you will find your list of machines and you will find video tutorials and training support as well.

We’ve been studying the most common errors that our customers normally face with the machines and we inserted that research into the app solutions and tutorials in different languages.

If a customer can’t solve the problem independently with the step-by-step video tutorials, then of course our technical team will intervene.

LORIS: During the COVID period, when nobody was able to travel, Veronica maintained contact with the customers. Of course, we worked more on the spare parts during this time. Because she’s in charge of the organization of service, she has requested to work in the same office as production. Because when you stay in the same office, with sales, plus the service manager and so on. You speak one time, and update everyone. So, she was in the position to maintain close contact with customers to sustain and develop the sales network.

Today with Alberto it is easier to go to the customers because we can travel again. But if this connection was not maintained during COVID, it would be more difficult now.

Are there additional capabilities for MGG that you would like to highlight?

LORIS: One important thing that is also a key component of the business plan for MGG North America ... we have two companies in reality – MGG, the mother company that creates the equipment for the paintbrush sector. And this equipment, these lines, are guided and controlled by robotics and automation.

Loris Maestrutti and Alberto Voltolina

So for that reason, Gianfranco created in parallel in 2011, MGG Robotics, a sister company in Italy that spends 50 percent of its time developing and designing, and managing robotic automation in the MGG produced lines. And then they also invest 50 percent of their time on their own product in the automation industry – for food and beverage packaging, automotive, wood, veneer, aerospace and waste materials. This is a benefit because we have the knowledge inside.

So this is also a focus for MGG North America. We would like to extend our relationship, perhaps with startup companies here in the US, or with engineers, because we can support the production completely. All of the designs and ideas can be developed, we would also like to develop them here in the United States. And that is the reason that we have taken this first step.

So from the ABMA Convention perspective, we have one more day with the Face 2 Face meetings. What are your impressions so far of the event?

ALBERTO: This is an event where you have to be. Absolutely, this is the right way to make connections and network – this is something that we will want to do in the next years and we will keep promoting and sponsoring the event because it’s very, very important for us.

Speaking of events, there is some uncertainty around Interbrush 2024. Do you plan to exhibit in 2024 and will you bring machines?

GIANFRANCO MARCON: We believe that Interbrush is a very important event for the whole industry, and MGG looks forward to exhibiting at the next edition together with all the people belonging to this sector. It is a world-class showcase and MGG has always been present and I seize the opportunity to renew MGG’s utmost interest in participating. Our idea is to bring the latest news in terms of technology at the fair, so machines will be present thus allowing people to touch with hands the quality they are made of, but also I think we will bring some interesting digital content.

Thank you for your time today. As we close, are there any final thoughts you have for our readers?

LORIS: This is a family company. In our region in Italy, the heart of the industry is done by the family companies. It started small, then grew and grew and grew and became an industry. We are a company and we are a team. The steps we are taking are very important to maintain the equilibrium to growing without making one step backward, always stepping forward.

–This interview has been edited for length and clarity