The effects of the lockdown, prospects, and the skills demonstrated by a company like Nuova Guseo.
The new name was taken on in the 1960s while maintaining the same passion that set apart its founder, Domizio Guseo, at the beginning of the Twentieth century. Through the decades, Nuova Guseo has established itself as a leading company in the planning, realization, and installation of plants and equipment for fine and extra-fine grinding, mixing systems, devices for the handling of solids, and containment systems for the treatment of highly-active products.
Today, Nuova Guseo is an established industry reference point in the realization of a vast range of high-quality equipment, mainly for the treatment of solids for the chemical, pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic sectors.
Roberto Fanfani, Sales Manager Nuova Guseo, explains what has changed over these last few months.
Has the company been impacted by the lockdown?
We are probably facing an unprecedented crisis. The ISTAT data mentions that over 2 million companies closed during the lockdown (a little less than 48% of the total).
Since our company operates in ‘privileged’ sectors, chemical and pharmaceutical in particular, it remained closed for a brief period, just the time necessary to organize working from home strategies and structure operations so they could be carried out in safe conditions by drafting the relevant operating protocols in compliance with guidelines outlined by the government.
Initially, we restarted with about 30% of our available workforce while today we are back to having all of our employees. Let’s say that the lockdown obviously had an effect, but not a “dramatic” impact on our business.
The pandemic has had some heavy repercussions on the manufacturing division as well, imposing some changes. How has Nuova Guseo dealt with everything?
To internalize a modus operandi that implicates the daily use of protective equipment, manage work areas according to new and partially limiting arrangements…This is not an immediate process. However largely speaking, our manufacturing processes – planning, construction, assembly, and testing – have not changed dramatically.
There was an increase in production times primarily due to, apart from the brief initial closure period, difficulty in procuring certain components (suppliers were closed or working much less).
Another activity that was affected by the lockdown and by the subsequent post-lockdown phases was on-site assistance for the start-up of machines that had been installed, that obviously was supposed to be and still has to be managed in compliance with the new safety regulations and limitations that are in place.
Among the consequences, were there closures of some markets?
Up to today we can’t speak about a true closure of markets, if anything, it’s a more complex management of transactions with our clients.
Our sectors – chemical, pharmaceutical, and food – have remained operational for the most part, especially the pharmaceutical sector for obvious reasons, even if certain production strategies were diverted to more pressing needs resulting from the COVID emergency.
We noticed a lull in the cosmetic sector, likely due to a temporary change in consumer habits which inevitably penalized products that weren’t essential but this sector certainly has not stopped.
Even communication had to change, penalizing the visibility of the company. Despite this, Nuova Guseo has put its own strategy into place. What is it?
The element that I would like to emphasize is the almost complete cancellation of all trade fair events and exhibitions planned for 2020 which represent an important factor in our business.
They have been moved to the next year, replaced by smaller versions or with media events which, however, have a much different kind of impact. Being able to touch something with your hand and have direct contact with someone are still important in our industry.
To evaluate what the impact of this situation could be is somewhat difficult, we would be reasoning on theoretical potential that, even under normal conditions, is extremely variable. Certainly, in terms of “visibility” on the markets, the impact is evident, even if difficult to quantify.
However, we’ve made a push with our web marketing, including a revamping of our website which is currently in progress, creation of landing pages, registration for web portals categorized by interests, and much more. At the same time, we’ve increased advertising in specialized magazines.
Revolutions imposed by the pandemic which have not, however, modified Nuova Guseo’s DNA.
Our mission is to put client satisfaction first. Our strengths are extreme flexibility both in the planning stages and during realization of a project. This allows every model to be customized based on the needs of the client.
Obviously, we have a line of “standard” products that in the majority of cases, simply represent a starting point in the interaction with the market.
For us, every order is a unique piece, a tailor-made prototype. We work together with the client, continually exchanging information in order to correctly identify the characteristics of the process to be addressed and the most suitable solution. Remote assistance is an integral service we provide to our clients, starting from traditional telephone support and via e-mail, then with video chat.
Let’s not forget software assistance by means of special modules integrated in the supplied control systems.
If needed (ex: the user can’t attend the testing), we can provide operators with videos of the tests and of training.