Boasting a unique history spanning three continents, and business activities ranging from furniture to heat exchangers, Provides Metalmeccanica has evolved into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of heat exchangers. General Manager Franco Provenziani spoke to Richard Hagan about the company’s family ties, how the business has grown into a global powerhouse, with installations in some of the most recognisable landmarks around the world, and its recent acquisition by multinational manufacturing firm Wieland Werke AG Group.
Provides Metalmeccanica (renamed Wieland Provides Srl ) is a leading name in the design, manufacture and installation of bespoke heat exchanger systems. The company’s journey to the top of its market has been hard-won and fought across three continents and spanned several company evolutions.
Provides began life in 1968 as a specialist producer of metallic office furniture before moving into the construction of racks, alu minium telephone booths and step ladders and, finally, towards the production of pres surised gas tanks for both LPG automotive and domestic use.
In 1991, the business started working in the air conditioning sector for the very first time and, in 1996, it designed and manufac tured its first series of heat exchangers. And the rest, as they say, is history.
“In the 1990’s we were looking for a new core business,” recalled General Manager
Franco Provenziani. “Manufacturing LPG cylinders required a degree of expertise, but it’s relatively simple technology and we felt that we needed a more technologi cally advanced product. We found it in heat exchangers.”
An evolved global footprint
An enquiry from whom was to become the company’s first customer in the 1980s k ickstarted the company’s decision to tackle the heat exchanger market, according to Mr Provenziani: “We began building one unit for this customer, per week. The busi ness evolved and grew and now, we produce 40 per day, and that’s just in Italy. Globally, the business is producing up to 70 per day.”
That impressive output is partly thanks to the company’s 240 highly skilled staff worldwide, spread across three factories. Its main facility in Italy is also its research and development headquarters. Furthermore,
it has a factory in the Sichuan Province in China, founded in 2005, and a third in the US state of Virginia, which opened its doors in 2014.
Its product range spans three categories: dry expansion evaporators, flooded evapo rators, and water cooled condensers. The quality of all its products is guaranteed partly by the company’s ISO 9001 certifi cation which has been in place since 1996, as well as a raft of other certifications. These include ISO 45001:2018 for occupational safety, and ASME, PED, AS 1210, GB, UKCA and CRN certifications, in addition to numerous marine certifications all relating to legal compliance and risk elimination.
Leading the pack
Provides credits much of its market strength to its expert engineers and its deep techno logical capabilities in its R&D department in Italy.
“We have a very strong team of engineers who aren’t afraid of failure,” Mr Provenziani explained. “When we get an idea and we think it can work, we will try it. If it works, we go ahead with production. If not, we turn the page and try something else. It’s our strongest characteristic as a business.”
The company pursued constant invest ments in its R&D capacity, which has yielded a number of exciting develop ments over the years.
“We’ve introduced at least four different types of heat exchangers into the market, and all of our competitors worldwide have followed suit with those ideas,” said Mr Provenziani. “We’re market leaders in that kind of product development.
“For example, we’ve really focused on improving the environmental impact of our products. We introduced an extremely efficient heat exchanger that utilised 70% less refrigerant than a standard unit. Refrigerants cost a fortune, and the big industrial units we make literally have tonnes inside them. So, a 70% saving in refrigerant require ments marks a huge reduction not only in environmental impact but also in the cost of the unit. ”
That kind of operational efficiency is an intentional product of the company’s ethos:
“Our core business and our strength at the moment is our high-efficiency machines,” Mr Provenziani emphasised. “When we first entered the heat exchanger market over 30 years ago, we decided to differentiate our selves via our efficiency, so we’ve worked heavily on that aspect since day one, always
pushing efficiency, rather than price into the market.
“After all of these years in the market, we continue to create machines that are more and more efficient,” he added. “Together with our reduced refrigerant designs and our data centre work, that’s really put us on the map.”
Mr Provenziani continued: “Supplying the data centre market with units to make the chillers, we decided to go in deeper and now, after four years of research, we are able to cool the CPUs and GPUs inside the servers themselves with cutting edge two-phase tech nology that very few can master when dealing with such small heat exchangers, or cold plates as they are known in the industry. Provides hopes to become a leader in that field as well, and seems to have all the right cards in place to do just that.”
Wieland acquires Provides
In February 2022, Provides was acquired by the multinational manufacturing firm Wieland Werke AG.
While the two companies have been col laborating on projects for over 20 years, Mr Provenziani, whose father was one of the three founders of the business all those years ago, confirmed the acquisition is expected to really enhance the synergies between the two firms.
“The acquisition is a huge step for us. Wieland is an enormous €5.5 billion com pany and a technological leader in its field. They’re copper manufacturers and make all the technical tubes for heat exchangers as well as many other products. They’re all excellent products and Wieland is also very strong in research and development. The
merger gives Provides an enormously strong position in the market moving forward.”
Provides anticipates that the acquisition will vastly strengthen its current push into the data centre market as well.
“The players are huge in that market. Wieland is a very active player using dif ferent technologies to Provides thus offering different leading edge technologies in that market. It’s a perfect synergy!
Mr Provenziani noted the demand for the company’s heat exchangers has grown exponentially in the last two or three years.
“Many of the companies we serve are supplying cooling systems for data centre cooling, and it’s become our best seller and a great growth driver for us. Now we can cool the data centre rooms and the servers directly as well – another first!”
Together with Wieland, Provides will be able to offer comprehensive, fullyinte grated, complete systems for its cus tomers and soon will deal with recycling the replaced chillers as opposed to only s upplying the heat exchangers, for example. “This for us, gives the word sustainability a whole new meaning for us and our market sector!” stated Mr Provenziani.
Chilling the landmarks
Thanks to its global manufacturing and sales footprint, Provides has completed projects in various locations and in general, its systems are present in some of the most iconic build ings around the world.
An especially high-profile project was its supply of cooling equipment to Dubai’s famous super-luxury hotel, the Jumeirah
Al Naseem. Another particularly recognis able one was its contribution of systems t o five out of the seven Freedom Towers in New York, in which 90% of the heat exchangers were supplied by all three of Provides’ factories.
“The football stadiums in Qatar are another highlight for us,” Mr Provenziani remarked. “For the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, we were contracted to manufacture all of the heat exchangers that will be used to cool the stadiums. They’re open-air arenas and they’ve guaranteed that they’ll keep their spectators at 26°C despite tempera tures outside the stadiums likely to greatly exceed that heat. We’ve built a huge number of those enormous machines for them.”
Ethos for the future
Following its acquisition by long-term col laboration partner Wieland, Provides is optimistic about its future. In general, the company plans to continue pushing for greater efficiency within its products, while also investing to increase the size of its footprint.
In conclusion, however, Mr Provenziani was clear that no matter how much it might grow, the company will never lose its passion for constantly pushing the boundaries.
“I refuse to let our people use the words ‘Never’ or ‘It’s impossible’. That’s a big nono here,” he explained. “We are famous for our perseverance in attempting to do some thing if we genuinely believe that it can be done. When the market or a customer have told us that “it can’t be done”, we’ve often asked, “Are you sure? Or has it just not been approached the correct way?”. A number of installations were possible as a result of us winning that bet. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again! That’s a major strong point for us.”
