Sampsistemi, a company belonging to the EUR 1. 2 billion Maccaferri Industrial Group, is known worldwide for its solid technological solutions for wire drawing and extrusion. The company was exhibiting its 1250 Double-Twist Strander, a recent design and now part of its product range, at Interwire, attracting enormous attention.
Founded in 1936, Sampsistemi is the oldest company of the SAMP Group. The company has a stable worldwide presence with 6 subsidiaries, 5 production plants and nearly 250 employees operating worldwide ensuring tight relations with customers, strengthened by a reliable and prompt customer service and spare parts department. Furthermore, Sampsistemi has reinforced its presence in the market through three strategic acquisitions: Cortinovis do Brasil, Euro Extrusion and Euroalpha. The company also believes that a successful product is the result of ongoing researches.
WCI recently had a brief interview with Mr. Federico Bussola, Sales Director Sampsistemi Srl, wherein he divulged how Sampsistemi’s technological solutions in the field of extrusion and wire drawing are superior to its peers. He also stated that the growing Indian wire and cable industry is becoming one of the most important markets for the company.
Wire & Cable India: Tell us the new developments at Sampsistemi.
Federico Bussola: In the last years Sampsistemi has made a number of significant investments to grow in different fields strengthening its position in the market. We manufacture mainly three types of machines – machines for cable extrusion, metallurgy-related machines (wire drawing machines), and rotating machines (single/double twist machines and rigid stranding lines).
Further, to keep cementing our technological basis and to undergo swift market expansion, we have made three important acquisitions in the last two years. The first one was in South America with Cortinovis do Brazil – a Brazilian company, established in 1975 and located near Sao Paulo (Brazil) area. Here, we produce all three types of machinery – rotating, extrusion lines and metallurgic machines; and now we have a solid leadership in the Latin market thanks to the over 40 year-know-how. This investment has been extremely worthy since we have improved our sales force through a well-known local manufacturing. In fact, having a local company ensures two benefits: the accessibility of local loans by our customers and the exemption from the import duty. Moreover, from the company’s stand-point, this solid presence allows us to understand and be sharp in the Latin American market.
The second acquisition was a small extrusion line manufacturing company called Euro Extrusion, based in an area close to Milan. Euro Extrusion had a wide experience in the field of lines for coating electrical cables, tire tread extruders and fiber optic cables lines, etc. This acquisition has contributed to improve the already well-established capacity and expertise of Sampsistemi in the extrusion sector. Consequently, the whole R&D department and production activities related to the extrusion applications have been moved to a brand new 7,500 sqm Technology Center located in the Milan area.
The last acquisition took place at the end of the year, where we acquired Euroalpha, an Italian company. Euroalpha, which includes the Euroalpha RM (rotating machines division), is a highly experienced and respectable manufacturer of wire drawing and stranding machines for the non-ferrous industry, well known for its innovative and reliable equipment, as well as deep process knowledge.
Our organization now includes three locations in Italy itself – Bologna, the headquarters and the main plant; Milan area, the new R&D and extrusion production plant; and the original plant of Euroalpha near Vicenza. Besides, we have a company in Shanghai, focused on the Chinese and Asian market. Here we manufacture bunchers and some single wire machines and we provide high-quality service (spare parts, engineering) to the local customers. Then, we have SAMP USA plant in Williamsport, MD since 1974; it is a commercial and a service company, where we supply spare parts. Here the service is based locally even for the machines produced in Italy due to the Sampsistemi philosophy to be always close to our customers.
In the coming time, we will be more aggressive and our presence in the market will be even stronger. We are here at the Interwire exhibiting our big line machines – Rod Breakdown and 1250 Double-Twist Strander, which is a recent design and is now part of our product range.
WCI: Please tell us about your future plans.
FB: Our future plans are to grow up and consolidate all our products/solutions and acquisitions, and of course, to strengthen our sale force networks.
WCI: We would like to understand how Sampsistemi is better than its peers. Also, tell us about its strength.
FB: Service is what I believe to be extremely important. If a customer buys one machine, we want it to buy the second one, followed by the third, and so on. A customer needs proper service that we readily and efficiently provide. We are always well-prepared for our service provision because we know the technical needs of our customers and kinds of spare parts they would need in future.
In our company, we have technicians who are familiar with the technology and well informed about the process involved. Some of our customers are new and their projects are unknown to us. Nevertheless, we are able to serve them providing a turnkey solution – not only by supplying machinery and equipment, but also by giving them requisite technological support, such as selecting the correct machinery as per their needs. Sampsistemi also believes in consistent investment, in improving the existing technology and developing new ones. You have to be on track in order to be in a leading market position.
WCI: Tell us about your views on the Indian wire and cable industry. How does Sampsistemi look forward to this market and your plans for the same?
FB: India is a very important market which receives many investments since it is growing up quickly. Having a presence in this market is a crucial part of our strategy. Consequently, we will be able to reduce price without losing our reliability and high quality. Moreover, we will be closer to customers ensuring a faster service. Nowadays, we already have an engineer from India in our team and we are already providing local service for our local customers. We have taken the first step and will foresee more investments for India in the future.
WCI: Can we expect a marketing office or some assembling facility soon from Sampsistemi in India?
FB: This is surely our target; we are working on that.
WCI: Anything specific you would like to mention about India, which would strengthen your commitment in the eyes of your customers?
FB: India is too important for us to not have any presence in loco. We will be there very soon so that we start serving local customers and placing our solid machineries in the Indian wire and cable industry. As we said, we are now installing two 32-wire drawing machines, which is very important because probably a machine of this kind has never been installed in India before. As far as we know, there is no production of such machines locally. Therefore, this is an important step to start and serve the Indian market.
We already provide local service to our customers by assisting them in installing and commissioning the machines. We are looking forward to see the reactions of our customers about our investments. After all, our customers’ satisfaction is the key and our main goal in everything we do.
