Massimo Barbari

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Piemme closed 2014 with turnover of 92 million euros,

representing a rise of 8% year-on-year. Exports accounted for 82% of this envia-ble result. The first half of 2015 has also confirmed the growing interest of international markets, with substantial sales increases in the USA, France, Germany and the Far East. To date, the share of exports of ce-ramic tiles has risen to 85% of total com-pany turnover, which in turn has risen by 10% compared with the first half of 2014. It's also worth noting that this first half has seen a return to growth in turnover on the Italian market, with a 2.5% rise compared with the same period last year.Piemme is a historic, top-end ceramic manufacturer, which has enjoyed an uninterrupted partnership with the de-signer Valentino since 1977. The compa-ny has invested some 25 million euros in recent years in the development of an innovative production process for digi-tally decorated porcelain tiles in the most up-to-date formats, such as 60x60, 80x80, 45x90 and 60x120. We interviewed Massimo Barbari, who became Piemme's Managing Director in April, after working for Panaria Group

In the spotlight

Piemme extends international reach

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for over 15 years, including in the role of Executive Vice Pres-ident Sales & Marketing for Florida Tile since 2007.

Tile International: Now that you have completed the mod-ernisation plan for your Solig-nano facility, would it be fair to say that Piemme is one of the most innovative and efficient companies in Italy's ceramic cluster?Massimo Barbari: “Thanks to

one of the most substantial in-vestments made in the Sassu-olo ceramic cluster in the past 10 years and implemented under an industrial plan that came to a conclusion this year, Piemme has based its positioning firmly on efficiency and product innovation. The Solignano production facility now includes: two new 98m kilns equipped with the best energy efficiency and environ-mental safeguarding systems;

four presses paired with hori-zontal dryers; a fully automat-ed handling system; a decora-tion department equipped with seven high-definition digi-tal printers (the last of which was fitted in August); three complete new lines for polish-ing, lapping and edge-grind-ing ceramic panels, all of which we do in-house rather than on an outsourced basis; and a fully revised information system that's capable of su-

pervising everything that's happening at the company in real time, from the receipt of raw clay to the dispatch of in-voices for finished products. So yes, Piemme is definitely one of the most efficient man-ufacturers in the district. My next task is to redefine our sales and marketing strate-gies.” Tile International: What do you expect the key points of these strategies to be?

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M. Barbari: “There are three things we need to deal with as soon as possible. First, we need to reposition the brands according to a more up-to-date strategic vision aimed at nudging the company to-wards a real “brand culture”. To achieve this we need to firmly re-establish Piemmegres, which produces top-end por-celain tile, as a halo brand. As such, it would increase interest among architects and design-ers, and have a knock-on ef-fect on the Piemme brand and its Valentino spin-off, which manufactures cover-ings of “undisputed luxury”. These are highly acclaimed in major market areas such as Russia (which has unfortu-nately imposed an import ban at the moment for politi-cal reasons), the Middle East and the Far East. We also need to reposition the Siced brand, which is currently aimed at large retail chains in France, but could also be used for breaking into large retail chains in other North Europe-an countries. The Club brand, meanwhile, which has tradi-tionally been used for prod-ucts in the mid-to-low seg-ment of the market, could be absorbed by the other brands to complement the range of-fered to specifiers, building firms and large retail chains.”Tile International: Am I right in saying that you're working on the cultural repositioning of the company, with a view to reducing the extent to which it

is seen as a supplier of out-sourced manufacturing ser-vices?M. Barbari: “Piemme's work as a supplier of outsourced man-ufacturing services is still im-portant, and is highly valued by the companies that contin-ue to place specific produc-tion orders with us, but in view of our high production capac-ity, high quality and the reve-nues that we have been gen-erating in recent years, we need to prioritise sales under our own brands, in order to safeguard our margins and profitability so that we can keep on expanding and in-vesting.”Tile International: So the first two points of your strategy are brand repositioning and prior-itising sales under your own brands. What is the third?M. Barbari: “The third point, which we need to set to work on straight away, is to optimise distribution to our markets with lead times of 7-10 days. To do this, we have a series of internal reorganisation initia-tives in the pipeline, ranging from full ramp-up of our new business management sys-tem to the optimisation of in-ventory levels. Our new busi-ness management system, which we have now almost ful-ly implemented, will help a lot with this, because it will serve as a fully fledged business in-telligence tool on the one hand, and a customer rela-tionship management tool on the other.”

Tile International: What new products did you unveil at Cersaie?M. Barbari: “Piemme products stand out on the world market for their innovative three-di-mensional structure, their spe-cial surface lapping and pol-ishing, and their incredible aesthetic fidelity to the materi-als they draw inspiration from. Alongside our reproductions of the most sought-after types of marble in our Marmi Reali collection, which has now been enhanced with new matt finishes and 3D textures, we also presented WoodSe-lection at Cersaie 2015. This is a refined collection that replicates the world's most highly prized woods, with a range of different finishes. And we also unveiled our new “More” collection, in a range of elegant colours and a nat-ural or polished finish, which replicates the concrete surfac-es that are in such favour with architects and interior design-ers at the moment. Our myriad 3D textures and elaborate surface finishes have also enabled us to launch full “architecture pro-grammes”, with porcelain floor and wall tiles. And let's not forget that we are one of just a handful of Italian manufacturers that still pro-duces excellent collections of white-body monoporous tile, in keeping with our long-standing tradition.” Tile International: In view of your good performance in the

first half of this year, do you think that your 2015 results will be in line with the vigorous growth trend that you have achieved in recent years? M. Barbari: “I'm confident that we will be able to match the significant increases that we have achieved in the past two

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years, and I know for a fact that Piemme is now more alive, more dynamic and more competitive than ever. Piemme is now a modern, effi-cient company that holds product and process certifica-tions such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. This enables us to

consolidate our strategies and bring about a decisive repositioning on the market. The figures are on our side, and so are our plant and products, so we can only im-prove, and we are channel-ling all our efforts in this direc-tion.” 5

GROUP GROWTH3 YEARS IN FIGURES

Year: Turnover in millions of euros:2012 up euro 79,92013 up euro 85,12014 up euro 92,0