MILAN, Sept. 23 (Class Editori) -- Comer Industries, a company based in Reggiolo (Reggio Emilia), an international leader in the production of transmission systems for agricultural, industrial and renewable energy power plants, has reached an agreement with the authorities of Pinghu, (East China), to expand the local plant by a further 6,000 square meters.
The agreement with the local authorities was signed by the president and Ceo Matteo Storchi, the Cfo Cristian Grillenzoni and the industrial director Giuseppe Zelano, during their visit to the Chinese factory.
This agreement will increase the potential of the site inaugurated in November 2018, which has almost reached its maximum production capacity thanks to the growing demand for products that Comer Industries supplies to Asian customers.
“The opening of the Pinghu plant has allowed us to efficiently serve the Asian market. The investments made in the country are generating a positive return, which justifies and encourages the path undertaken. Comer Industries is willing to invest wherever there is a fertile ground and concrete possibilities for growth” explained Matteo Storchi.
The agreement will lead Comer Industries to occupy a total area of approximately 25,000 square meters. The number of people employed is around 200, and their number is set to increase. The turnover generated by the Pinghu plant in the first 8 months of activity is around 30 million euros.
In 2008, Storchi started the construction of the first Comer factory in Shaoxing, with an investment of 5 million euros, entered into production with a workforce of 100 units. “Our production in Shaoxing does not replace what our Chinese partners provide but adds to and completes our offer of transmissions aimed above all at mobile earthmoving, agriculture and wind power machines,” Matteo Storchi explained at the time. “This last sector has the greatest interest, given its accelerated development expected in the north of China, which we intend to focus in particular with strong investments.”
The decision to focus strongly on China dates back to then, when Fabio Storchi, father of Matteo and founder of the company in 1970, decided that the investment in that market would have allowed to overcome the industrial crisis that was breaking down on the European market in 2009. “Placing in China 35 million euros of our products in this year alone, the double of 2008, has allowed us to mitigate the terrible blow suffered by the international crisis which is causing a fall between 40 and 60% of the activity of the the power transmission sector, destined for the main world manufacturers of agriculture, industry and energy in which we are leaders in the design and production of advanced engineering systems and mechatronics solutions. A similar effect will occur in 2010 when the push will come precisely from China, while a situation of weakness is expected in Europe and only a timid recovery in the USA” the entrepreneur explained at the time.
Comer Industries landed in China in the 1980s. “The discovery of China took place during a long trip, undertaken to do some marketing,” Fabio Storchi had said at the time. “At that moment, after having been good suppliers of transmissions for agricultural machines in the USA, we could no longer compete with the imports of American trading companies which, producing in China, practiced bargain prices. We then decided in 1986, after a careful verification in the field, to put together our engineering and design knowledge and the low-cost Chinese production factor. And this combination turned out to be a safe bet.”
“We have thus created industrial alliances, with local producers that have grown with us, transmitting to them the most advanced production methods, with great satisfaction in terms of profitability of trading" added the entrepreneur. In recent years, we have drawn from China about 30 million euros on average a year of our products, destined in particular to the American and European agricultural mechanics market.”
In 2006, with the resounding growth of the Chinese economy, the decision had matured to look at China as a market. “To take care of the sale of our products in the country, we sent my nephew Matteo to Shanghai where we had transferred our representative office, which was previously in Beijing,” the president explained. In 2017 Comer Industries also opened a factory in India.
In the first half of this year the Emilia-based company, which has been listed on the Milan stock exchange since last February on the Aim market, achieved a turnover of 220.8 million euros, up 8.4%, with an ebitda at 25.4 million of which, equal to 11.5% of revenues and a net profit of 11.5 million, up 12.5%.
(Source:Class Editori)
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