The voice of businessmen: Metallurgica Locatelli

The voice of businessmen: Metallurgica Locatelli.

For the new section of the website called “The voice of businessmen”, we asked an interview to Metallurgica Locatelli, the company from Calolziocorte (Lecco, Italy), which since 1920 operates in the drawing of steel wire with low carbon content. We talked with the accountant Giovanni Locatelli, who is in charge of the Commercial Department assisted by Mr. Giulio Colombo, and asked him first to take stock over this period. How's it going for the company? The work is fluctuating, the requests are infertile, the negotiations evanescent. Compared to 2009, the total demand was higher, and we certainly worked better, but in November we returned to lower levels: the demand is slow, and the financial aspect weighs heavily because customers don't keep pace with the payments. The crisis is comparable to a war. Now, as at the end of a war, we are collecting the dead and wounded. There's not too much optimism in your words. Optimism is part of every entrepreneur, it is mandatory to move forward. As for the future, it is difficult to determine when there will really be a recovery. Certainly not before next spring. What do you see behind the crisis that Italy's industry is experiencing? Four things: an oversupply problem; a problem of relocation of firms, because firms that go abroad, however, create confusion in the market, and thirdly, the United States, which were once a driving force, have lost their specific gravity in the system; as 4th problem, I put the government. The government loses the power to affect the situation, if it does theater, and not politics. Then there is another criticism that undermines the general situation. Which one? There is too much greed among competitors. The behavior of some companies, dictated by greed, disrupts the market, which is already shaken by the problems I mentioned before, and by a strong volatility of commodity prices. And how are you moving as a company in this gloomy scenario? First of all, we focus on obtaining customer satisfaction, in ever shorter time. For us it is very important to show our customers reactivity and physical presence. In addition, for a company like ours, which has existed for 90 years, it is essential to constantly improve the quality of production. We are currently working to introduce a new product, but I can't say anything about that yet. Last question: how do you promote your products? We participate in some selected fairs, we travel a lot, personally, and we rely on the media, like Internet.