Back in the family La Leonessa

BACK IN THE FAMILY

Headquartered in Carpenedolo, Italy, Brescia province, La Leonessa is a successful global industrial group. Since the 1970s it has been manufacturing slewing bearings, mainly for construction equipment, windmills and marine equipment; and turntables for agricultural equipment. Eugenia Fisusco talks to Tommaso Ghirardi, vice-president of La Leonessa SpA, to find out more about the background and current position of this global industrial group.

AT the end of the 1950s, Ferdinando Pasotti, Tommaso Ghirardi’s grandfather, started the production of steel wheels and axles for agricultural trailers and equipment in Carpenedolo, his native town, under the company name of FAD. Later, in the 1970s, he established the company La Leonessa to produce turntables for agricultural trailers. It later began producing the slewing rings that make up the company’s core business today.

Mr Ghirardi joined La Leonessa in the 1990s, with his mother Gabriella as president (the position she still holds) and under the tutorship of his grandfather who remains active in the company.

Today La Leonessa SpA produces 30,000 slewing rings per year, with diameters from 400mm to 3000mm, and is the Italian leader in this market. Developments in the family activities

In the year 2000 the family sold FAD to the English engineering group GKN, which is quoted on the London stock exchange. This was not an easy decision for Mr Ghirardi and his family as it was FAD that had introduced his family and its business activities to the wider world.

However, owing to a change in its business strategy, in 2010 GKN decided to divest its agricultural axles business and sell the axles division of FAD. The family was only too happy to seize this opportunity to take back a very important part of its history. Mr Ghirardi explains, “This is very important to me because it has brought back a part of the family. I am immensely proud of this transaction. FAD Assali (this is the name of the new company) will take great advantage of the synergies with the rest of our global group.”

One important reason for the growing success of La Leonessa is the constant allocation of financial resources to investments in stateof-the-art equipment. In 2010 it inaugurated a new milling facility, vertically integrating its production process, and invested in forging and lamination processes to produce the raw rings which are then machined and assembled to make the slewing rings. La Leonessa has thus become the only company in Italy and one of the few in Europe to manufacture slewing bearings starting from the raw material.

Today the slewing rings and turntables production is spread over an area of more than 50,000m2, 27,000 of which are under a covered area.

The importance of this investment also lies in the particular period of time in which it was made, as Mr Ghirardi underlines: “The last two years have been difficult because of the

financial crisis. However, my grandfather taught me that it is good to invest during hard times, because once you are able to survive those you are confident that you will be able to deal with all kinds of problems in the future.”

A global company

La Leonessa is selling its slewing bearings worldwide to the most important producers of construction equipment. It is the leader in the construction market for concrete pumps, with customers including CIFA (Italy), Zoomlion (China) and Putzmeisters (Germany).

The company is also present in the marine and windmills markets. As Mr Ghirardi explains, “We basically supply all the companies that are using slewing bearings for the motion of their equipment.” Indeed, FAD Assali collaborates with some of the world’s leading agricultural machinery manufacturers, including John Deere, CNH and Claas.

In order to maintain its global credentials, the group is currently investing heavily in its new Chinese company. This year (2011) its new Chinese slewing bearing factory will open in Yancheng, 300km north of Shanghai. The diameter of the slewing bearings produced there will reach 4000mm.

“Our local purchasing structure will take care not only of the needs of Leonessa Yancheng, but also the needs of components for FAD Assali and other companies in the group,” Mr Ghirardi adds.

Leonessa also has a subsidiary in the USA, La Leonessa North America, which is located in Hartland, Wisconsin. “From this company we supply to North, Central and South America,” continues Mr Ghirardi, “but we are present in all five continents thanks to a net-

work of distributors and agents. As for Europe, we have customers in every country but we are particularly successful in Germany, France, Holland and the Scandinavian countries.

Research and development and testing equipment

Leonessa’s central production facility in Carpenedolo has a state-of-the-art R&D and testing department. Here it carries out all the required analysis and tests on materials, and on the heat treaments of teeth and raceways.

Mr Ghirardi says that the company’s R&D department is “always developing new projects in cooperation with customers, universities and suppliers.”

He continues: “Concerning the rubber seals, we have established relationships with leading companies in Italy and Europe in this field.”

The seals are fundamental for the correct maintenance and long life of the slewing bearings used in windmills, and to keep a clean environment in some applications of the slewing bearings, such as aseptic bottling equipment. In general, the slewing bearings are considered to be critical parts in most of their applications, therefore their design and development requires long experience, great attention to detail and the capability to innovate through investment in the resources needed to implement the necessary research activity.

Future growth

“We believe our production capacity is the key to future growth,” confirms Mr Ghirardi. “Thanks to our recent investments and the widening of our production range up to 3m, we are now able to produce 25 per cent more.” At the moment, La Leonessa is still only operating at half of its actual production capacity because of the economic crisis. However, this excess capacity also means that it will be able to keep growing without the need for further acquisitions in the future. “We hope to double our production in the next couple of years,” he adds.

Mr Ghirardi concludes on a personal note: “I am very popular here because of my role as president of Parma FA. I wish to gain the same popularity as vice-president of La Leonessa Group in the next few years.” n