Good neighbourliness and internationalisation: Made in Trentino sells in Holland

Good neighbourliness' as a lever for growth and internationalisation. This is happening at Polo Meccatronica, Trentino Sviluppo's intelligent industry hub in Rovereto, where the Novotic and Zandonai Albert companies, small industrial automation firms occupying two neighbouring production spaces, have formed an alliance.

The key is the proximity based on mutual esteem and trust, as well as the interest in collaborating in the realisation of a large customised plant for papermaking, to be exported to Holland. A mechatronic system that, in a single day, produces 9 kilometres of technical fabric destined for multiple sectors: from roller blinds for residential and commercial environments to upholstery for furniture and furnishings, to shading systems for high-end architecture.

"Novotic," explains CEO Manuel Todesco, "was founded 15 years ago and in 2019 chose to move its headquarters to Polo Meccatronica in order to seek contamination and collaboration and thus grow its expertise. The company, which today employs ten people, deals with industrial automation applied to industrial production processes in the manufacturing sector, i.e. it provides automated systems to produce and manufacture components or carry out quality controls, using robots and artificial intelligence as an enabling technology. Founded by serving the Trentino region, over the years it has begun to work throughout northern Italia and is now embarking on a path of internationalisation. "A complex transition, but one that is rich in satisfaction," Todesco continues, "because discovering the needs expressed by foreign customers allows us to acquire new know-how, which we learn and can then put back into circulation on a local scale.

And this is where the company Zandonai Albert comes in. Set up just a few metres away, it has a dozen employees and, for the past fifteen years or so, has been manufacturing paper converting and finishing machinery, such as unwinders and winders for digital printing. Among its main customers are US companies for whom the company produces machines for laminating collectible cards dedicated to popular sports, such as baseball and basketball. 'Inventing,' says owner Albert Zandonai, 'is our watchword. Every machine we design is a prototype, every job is bespoke. A customer from the Netherlands, a textile manufacturing company, with whom I had already worked in the past, asked me to support them in the development of a new special machine that would bring together different technologies, including the software and electrical part'.

The aim was to create a large plant for the production of patented technical fabric, composed of eight hundred fibres and usable in various product sectors, particularly in interior design, for the production of roller blinds, but also upholstery for furniture and architectural shading systems. "Having often come across Novotic in Polo Meccatronica and knowing that they work on the software and electrical part of industrial systems, I thought of involving them to find the most suitable technological solution together.