Caring and growing Feralpi Group

CARING AND GROWING

Corporate social responsability and environmental sustainability are essential to the activity and success of the Feralpi Group, as its chairman, Giuseppe Pasini, explained to Industry Europe. Barbara Rossi reports.

The Feralpi Group is one of the main steel manufacturers in Europe, specialising in steel for the construction industry. It was established as Feralpi Siderurgica in 1968 in Lonato del Garda, near the northern Italian town of Bescia. It has always displayed an international outlook and today its steel and hot rolled output exceeds two million tonnes a year. It employs a permanent workforce of 1400 people in Italy, Europe (with Feralpi Stahl) and North Africa (with Feralpi Algérie). The group’s 2015 turnover reached €922.9 million, with 68 per cent of this generated through exports.

The group’s flagship product is reinforcing steel in bars, wire rod and mesh, but Feralpi stands for much more, as it is also active in the cold work steel, metal carpentry, environment and fish farming segments, as well as in financial activities and investment management.

Taking responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility is a cornerstone of Feralpi’s growth and development strategy. As Mr Pasini told Industry Europe, “Our first sustainability report dates back to 2004. Social responsibility,

safety and innovation drive our group, which does not only measure its own performance against financial parameters, but also takes into account the positive impact that its work has on the environment and the communities among which its companies are based and operate. All our relations with our stakeholders, both internal and external, are regulated by an ad-hoc ethical code, which is the main tool used by Feralpi for promoting, implementing and managing its work and business ethics within the company.

“In line with our belief that actively contributing to staff wellbeing is truly one of the social duties of a business, the Feralpi Group has implemented a series of initiatives, being aware of the importance of work as a fundamental value. This has been broadened and strengthened with the aim of supporting the training of young people to achieve access to employment and personal development. All of this is embodied in the Feralpi Bootcamp, the hub for all the youthbased initiatives and projects actively contributing to strengthening staff wellbeing. Started in 2014, it comprises various initiatives, ranging from careers advice for young people who are still at school or college, to high-level training programmes, and also includes apprenticeships as the best way to acquire new skills, thanks to the interaction with sector professionals. The Feralpi Bootcamp initiatives are aimed at the children of staff or local pupils/students, who are the future of our communities, and include diversified activities customised to suit different age groups.”

Implementing verticalisation

Feralpi has recently established a new holding company, Alpifer, in order to be closer to the market through the verticalisation of the group. At one end of this verticalisation structure there is Media Steel, while Presider – a market leader in cutting and shaping reinforcing steel – and Metallurgica Piemontese Lavorazioni – which operates in the steel beam sector - are at the other end. Unifer – a specialist in customised wire mesh - and the commercial company Steelfer, both part of Alpifer, complete this vertical structure.

Fer-Par, part of the Feralpi Group, has recently acquired the former Stefana plant in Nave, near Brescia. “This acquisition is in line with our strategy of growth through business diversification, which has led us towards new products and markets. Thanks to the evolution of Acciaierie di Calvisano, Feralpi has entered the industrial hot-rolled product sector with Feralpi Profilati Nave, but also that of special high value added steels with Caleotto SpA, not to mention the flat, square

and round bars, re-coiling and special profiles for wrought iron with CoGeMe Steel. Moreover, through Nuova Defim Orsogril, Feralpi works in the welded mesh, fencing and grating segment.

“In the last few years we have taken important steps towards developing an increasingly international dimension and becoming more diversified and verticalised on the market: In other words, to have a more comprehensive organisation and be more competitive. Would we consider new acquisitions? We never take anything for granted and we are always ready to spot new potential opportunities.

“We will continue to adhere to the motto of our founder, Carlo Pasini, which is ‘Working and growing through respect for mankind and the environment’. This motto projects us towards the 4.0 Industry, defined as responsible manufacturing placing technology and process digitalisation at the service of mankind and working in the most sustainable way possible, thanks to the best available technologies and an intense internal research and development activity.”

The Feralpi Group does not want to boast about all the certifications that it has obtained over time. However, it is particularly proud of the fact that Feralpi Siderurgica and Feralpi Stahl were among the first European steel companies to obtain the EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) environmental declaration, the highest recognition for companies and organisations which voluntarily decide to commit themselves to evaluating and improving their own environmental sustainability, performing an analytical analysis of the direct and indirect impact their work has on the environment. “To tell the truth, Feralpi Siderurgica has been the first Italian steel plant with a complex matrixtype organisation to obtain the EMAS certification.” n

ACQUATEC,, strengthened by its staff professionalism, is able to offer its clients a complete and tailored service for water cycle integral management, from drilling and lifting to treatment and distribution, as well as offering advice on customised system design together with a punctual and effi cient maintenance service, which has undergone all the ISO 9001 Quality System verification processes.

In terms of supply of new applications we offer a consultancy and analysis service, research and system configuration and construction.

With regard to existing systems we are able to renovate them guaranteeing, during the replacement of the various components, a perfect interchangeability with the obsolete parts and, in this service, we also include the rebuilding of the existing low and medium voltage transformer rooms according to legislation.

25039 - Travagliato (Brescia) Via Averolda, 25/27 Tel. (030) 662261-2 Fax (030) 662263 www.acquatec.it