Revomec, leader in the manufacturing and marketing of milling drums for leather processing, has launched on the market a new range of innovative models
Revomec, based in Trissino (Vicenza), a city of the Arzignano tanning district, launched on the Italian and foreign market the brand new RE-GREEN range. In the next few years, these innovative models will represent the trump card for the company, leader in the manufacturing and marketing of leather processing machines and specialized in the making of milling drums, used in the final part of the tanning process, the finishing phase. Since February 2020, when the pandemic broke out, the tanning sector has suffered a sharp slowdown, but now it seems there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Fabio Gecchele, CEO of the company, is convinced of it, too. We interviewed the young entrepreneur at the headquarters in the first week of May. He founded Revomec in 2011, together with his partner Manuel Zordan, therefore the company is celebrating its first ten-year anniversary this year. Currently the workforce is made up of about fifteen employees, a number destined to grow already this year.
Fabio Gecchele
“In the last 15 months – explains Gecchele – we have always kept on working, we only stopped during the two-month lockdown last spring, during which we had the time to invest in R&D activities, that actually allowed us to perfect the machines through innovations. We used the government subsidies only a few weeks, then we asked everyone back to work. The investments also included the environmental aspects, following the ‘green leaf’ project already undertook in previous years, a label we apply on all of our machinery, that also stands for lower consumption: when you tell a customer that the innovative model saves 40% of energy, the choice is clear. In the last period we particularly worked on sustainability and development, since mid-2020 normal machines we did not sell normal model, thus confirming that we have set the bar higher. We hope to succeed in equipping all of our drums with the RE-GREEN technology by the end of the year: this is the main challenge of 2021; for the following years we will study something new.”
Under a technological point of view, what aspects required the major efforts? The development of a new software for the management of the machines was a real challenge – we wanted to present this innovation at the February edition of Tanning Tech, then canceled because of the well-known reasons. We focused above all on simplicity, which has always represented the main feature: the ease of use of a machine is our “cornerstone”. A customer, usually gets scared when facing complications. Our technological level is very high: our goal is to obtain a smart machine, able to understand what kind of leather has been inserted and to finish it accordingly. The new software, in line with Industry 4.0 standards, lets the machinery to self-calibrate, based on the type of product processed. Obviously, there is great interest, everyone wants these models, which will contribute to renew the machine fleet inside tanneries. Revomec sold 11 machines to an important tannery in Arzignano specialized in the quality sector: after using the prototype the last year, the company ordered us 10 more; we supplied almost all of them, we count to deliver the last two before the summer.
Why do you call it a trump card? Because it features all the standards related to the new Industry 4.0 technologies as well as the characteristics related to eco-sustainability, including the ‘green leaf’, or ‘green tag’. We also cooperate with Assomac in this sense. The system must be improved and perfected, but thanks to this software we certainly undertook the right path. There is also another aspect linked to the tannery, where technicians and skilled employees, especially in the field of drums, are less and less. Hence the decision to focus on robotized machinery, requiring less human assistance. However, we are looking for professionals, we lack of three technicians, especially assemblers and workers, we have enough engineers or graduates; the right choice could be among those who have attended professional schools, able to assemble the machines.
Did you miss the international fairs and what are the main issues at the moment? Even if we boast a 10-year story, we have missed the international fairs a lot, because we are well known in Italy, but not so much worldwide. For us, these exhibitions, especially the foreign ones, have always represented a showcase to display the main innovations: we have been exhibitors in all the fairs in the world, in hot periods we used to attend a dozen a year, on average one a month. The expected return to normality should start in September, with the Tanning Tech in Milan, which will probably be the only international fair in 2021, then we will see how the situation will develop. Currently, there is a problem with components that cannot be found; on our side, we have been foresight and at the end of 2020 we have filled our warehouses. Prices have skyrocketed, registering increases up to 3-4 times as in the case of bearings; surges up to +40-50% is now normal.
Let’s talk about foreign markets: we are almost in the middle of the year, how is the situation from your point of view? The real hope is to overcome the pandemic, especially through vaccination campaigns, so to finally restart. For the post-Covid era, there are signs of growth, especially according to the incentives, in theory, very good, that the Government promised or to continental notices. At the moment the most reassuring situation seems to concern the most ofEurope, we have to wait and see what happens elsewhere. In these days I am leaving to South America, where we will install six machines: even in terms of flights the situation has finally unlocked, we have booked smoothly. Export is essential for the future: in 2019 it consisted in around 30% of our turnover, then everything stopped; the figures related to 2020 and the first four months of 2021 are not indicative. The growth margins are evident, even if it will take a few years to work at full capacity.
Are you confident about the recovery of the tanning sector? Absolutely, for this reason we will continue to invest in research as well. Just in recent weeks we have donated a milling drum the ‘Galileo Galilei’, a Technological school in Arzignano, where a small tannery has been created in an area adjacent to the school. It is equipped with every machine needed to tan leather but was devoid of this one, so we decided to donate it, an almost new model that we had just started using in the laboratory for tests. The inauguration we made together to the fifth-grade students who are about to graduate was moving; now, they’ll be able to understand how the Revomec drum works and check the effect it can have on leather.
www.revomec.com