The entrepreneurial adventure of Marco Agostini and Giovanni Baron, owners of Mec Man srl, based in the beating heart of the tanning industry (in the province of Vicenza), began 15 years ago. The awareness of having gained experience as employees in the construction and maintenance of vacuum drying plants for hides, has pushed these two “guys” to risk, starting their own business to pursue their dream. Today Mec Man srl, which is constantly evolving, employs 23 young people of an average age of 28. We met Marco Agostini, commercial soul of the company.
How did your adventure start? We started with a tool bag and my car, providing wide-ranging maintenance services, especially for drying plants, vacuum and evaporative towers. Tanneries require not to interrupt their production chain, or at least to do it for the shortest possible time; that’s why right from the start, our service has been prompt and fast. The businessmen started to trust us: that’s when Mec Man – Mechanical Maintenance was born.
I guess it was not easy. How did you come up here? Now you work all over the world… Yes, it was not easy, but we never lost heart. We have been fortunate in creating a beautiful team, step by step: the relationship between us is very close and trustworthy, the goals are clear and shared and the roles of each one is well defined. As a company, the next step was to add to maintenance another service, that of the revision of disused machinery and their components. To perform these operations, we opened our first office in Malo and began to travel the world, dismantling, reassembling and doing maintenance. Then there began our adventure as producers and innovators in the sector, an adventure that brought us in 2013 to open the current factory in Lugo.
What does innovation mean to you? For us, innovating means giving the customer more than he expects, more than he is used to. Our flagship is the Mec Giant: the large vacuum dryer. Our tables measure 8, 8.6 and even 9 meters, so as to allow the drying of three cowhides per layer, thus ensuring a productivity increase of 50% with the same running costs of a 7-meters machine. But we have also designed and built a line of compact machines, the Mec Pack, which can be transported in a container, thus reducing transport costs, which greatly affect the overall investment. They are all machines that work at low temperature and are made to last: we do not skimp on steel and all finishes are made with artisanal care.
In addition to vacuum dryers your production is completed with vacuum and staking machines. What are the news you are launching? Regarding the vacuum sector, we offer our customers the Ice Vacuum, a vacuum system designed and built entirely by us. It is the only system on the market able to vacuum a whole working table in 9 seconds and to be suitable to all dryers’ brands. It can be placed near the dryer, but it guarantees the same performance up to a distance of 50 meters. Also, thanks to its steel casing, it can also be left outdoor, supporting the work with two 6-layers dryers. We have also studied and improved the staking machine, designing our Mec Titan. Leather comes out from the machine softer and more uniform in all its surface compared to traditional systems thanks to the innovative design of our rungs. Also the duration of the different components is doubled compared to other machines.
According to this, is now your core business production? Not exactly, one of our strengths is and will always be the after-sales service. That’s our company’s first occupation and so we will keep on doing it, both for those who buy our machines and for those who use machines made by other companies. As maintenance technicians, we are able to understand, and in some cases to anticipate, the needs of our potential customers. Being close to the customer at all times is very important.
Are there any new projects in the offing? We are at a good point in the making of a new system for vertically drying hides. The new frame will be called Green Mec and we will launch it next February at the fair in Milan. But it’s a surprise…We don’t want to unveil everything now. www.mecman.net
