From China to Italy: the national big of work centres is born
The Chinese giant Rifa is selling. Production and over 200 jobs at the historic Piacenza-based company are protected
by Luca Orlando
sell China, buy Italy. To create a national champion in machine tools. Subverting the usual patterns, which often see Beijing companies taking over brands or activities in Europe, is Piedmont-based Vigel, a manufacturer of machining centres, which is taking over Mcm of Piacenza. A transaction that saves the company founded in 1978 from the abyss into which it had ended, with more than 200 jobs in the balance after the sudden decision of the controlling shareholder, the Chinese group Rifa, which bought the company in 2014, to set the company on the road to bankruptcy and the cessation of business. This path was interrupted with the presentation of a business plan and access to a negotiated procedure, until the decisive intervention of Vigel, which has been looking at the dossier since last September.
'In this company that we have known for a long time,' explains Vigel president and CEO Fabrizio Pesce, 'we find value and technology. By March we will present the new industrial plan, but already now we can say that this integration is important, because it allows us to enter key sectors in which we are not present today, primarily aerospace and energy, areas in which the time it takes to qualify a supplier is long. The synergies are also interesting in terms of markets: they are strong in Europe, we in Asia and North America'.
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The agreement, which is in its final stages (the notary's signature is expected today ......), provides for the complete transfer of the company branch, with the full maintenance of the 230 employees of Mcm, who now find themselves included in a more robust reality, with over 500 employees and revenues well above 100 million.
"Our machining centres are dedicated in particular to the automotive sector," Pesce explains, "but we have recently diversified our offer by introducing new gigacasting technologies at the service of electric car manufacturers, including Tesla, and a new product line acquired from Dmg Mori. With Mcm, which boasts a robust order portfolio of over 70 million euro, we can also grow in other areas, aiming first to achieve total revenues of 140-150 million'.
Dimensions that downstream of the integration will position the group, specialised in machining centres, among the national big names in the category. "The objective," adds the entrepreneur, "is to create a group with prospects for further expansion starting from these two excellences in mechanical technology, where the long-term vision is one of further growth: the current size is certainly not the point of arrival.
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