Marcevaggi celebrates 90 years. Airport challenge to grow

"Two degrees, one in chemistry and one in economics and commerce, in 1934 my father Mario Remondini, with one of his university friends, decided to take over the business of an old gentleman called Marcello Vaggi who had two horses and four wagons for loading and unloading cotton bales in the port, with the telegraph code Marcevaggi, and from there our story was born". From the classic 'scagno' in the heart of the historical centre of Genoa with just one employee, the leap to today: ninety years later Marcevaggi is a logistics group with 600 employees, two thousand vehicles and an annual turnover of 150 million. The holding company operates with two companies, Star specialising in the transport of liquid and solid bulk products, in particular chemicals and special waste, and leading the Italian and European markets for special transports, and Levorato Marcevaggi specialising in the transport and delivery of compressed, cryogenic and liquefied gases and the storage and refuelling of jets at major Italian and European airports.

Precisely on the occasion of his 90th birthday, celebrated with 250 guests in Genoa, at the Ducal Palace, even though the head office has now become Milan, Emanuele Remondini, 78 years old, like his father a knight of labour, president of the Marcevaggi group and of Star and Levorato Marcevaggi, tells us that the company's goal is still 'to grow'.

And there is also an eye on Genoa Airport. Levorato Marcevaggi is one of five companies that have expressed interest in Colombo. "Since the activity we carry out as Levorato Marcevaggi is in the aviation part, we thought we would come forward, even if it was an enthusiastic launch of availability that is all to be seen, because we understand that the relaunch of Genoa airport passes through a development of traffic that we cannot bring - explains Remondini -. We are not like Msc and Costa who can do it, but we can make a contribution to the management. And if there is work and space, we are here to follow it'.

The company was founded and specialised in truck transport, suffered a setback with the Second World War, then restarted by specialising in the two sectors that are still the two pillars of the business today, moved from trucks to intermodal transport, faced ups and downs such as austerity in 1973. Fifty years ago the acquisition of Star and 25 years later the joint venture with the Levorato family of Venice that marked the birth of Levorato Marcevaggi to which the gas sector was conferred, joined a few years later by the new jet refuelling business at airports. 'The debut was with Venice,' says Remondini. 'Today we are present in almost all airports in Italy and abroad in major airports such as Vienna, Brussels and Prague.

2022 and 2023 were growth years. "On 2024, which had started well, we have some signs of slowing down, on the other hand after the post-pandemic recovery there is now a bit of slackening and competition is being felt especially internationally. But we are confident in the development,' says Remondini. Without tears. 'We are closely following all our business sectors,' he explains, 'with a lot of attention to the environment sector on which there is a lot to do and a growing sensitivity on the part of the industry. Our goal is to grow by specialising more and more and strengthening ourselves in our historical areas, which globalisation is increasingly putting in the hands of large foreign groups that are making acquisitions to increase their presence, and so the issue of growth forces us not to stand still'.