In conversation with Mr José María Gerbolés, CEO of Salico

AlCircle is pleased to interview Mr José María Gerbolés, CEO of Salico, a dedicated Italian-Spanish company to the conception, engineering, manufacturing, putting into operation, training, and servicing of equipment for processing, finishing, and cutting for both ferrous and non-ferrous metal strip. In the interview, Mr Gerbolés has shared the journey of the company, its innovations and inventions, product range, key markets, and his own exclusive outlook for the short, mid, and long-term outlook. That’s not all, Mr Gerbolés has also shared its take on COVID19 and what measure he has taken for the company to combat the crisis and to be able to continue to offer sustainable solutions ahead.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

AlCircle: Please take us through Salico’s 40 years journey as an advanced technological solutions provider for the finishing lines for the aluminium and steel sector.

Mr Gerbolés: Ever since SALICO started its activity in the Northern part of Italy back in the year 1978, the owners of the company aimed to develop new and innovative technological solutions, which could improve the performance and reliability of the cutting lines. The first and one of the better-known of our inventions was the “eccentric rotary shear” developed and patented in the year 1987, for cutting into length with far superior dimensional tolerances of the sheets and reducing maintenance at the same time so that more than double the capacity could be reached when compared to the flying shears existed at those days in the market and all of it without a significant cost increase.

With the years, different types of shears were developed, such as eccentric rotary shears cutting high strength steels of up to 16 mm in thickness and as low as 0.1 mm of soft aluminium for packaging applications. Following the path of our automotive customers, very soon after, in the year 1991, we also developed and patented the “eccentric rotary tilting shears” for cutting trapezoids on the fly. Even if with the years, some of our competitors have copied the SALICO idea, our shear stands today as the worldwide absolute undisputed leader in trapezoidal cutting shears, with higher cutting capacity and better tolerances when compared to any of the other shears available in the market.

Another revolutionary concept brought into the picture in the early nineties by SALICO was the “zero inertia stacking” concept, which meant to stop completely the motion of the blank just before being stacked and dropping it on top of the previous sheet at zero speed. This way the typical problems that customers were facing with marks on the edges or surfaces of the sensitive sheets could be avoided permitting to sharply increase the real process speed of the lines and reduction of rejects due to surface quality issues.

Many other technological developments were introduced along the years like new systems for cleaning aluminium strips, different ways of tensioning of the sensitive slits in slitting lines ensuring surface quality at high speeds, robotic systems for tools change and fast tools cleaning in slitting lines, large and deep research and improvements in levelling technologies and so and so forth.

AlCircle: How did the link up of mechanical and automation process revolutionise the SALICO finishing lines?

Mr Gerbolés: The SALICO Group includes two Automation Plants, one in Italy and another in Spain, with a large number of very highly skilled engineers that develop our automation solutions in a very close cooperation with our mechanical engineers and designers. All the SALICO technological developments are fundamentally based on very deep knowledge and understanding of both the mechanical and automation aspects of different processes, which at the end lead to very smooth and well-integrated Mechatronic solutions.

AlCircle: How did mergers and acquisitions help the company expand its reach and business?

Mr Gerbolés: Mergers and acquisitions have played a key role in our recent development as a multinational group of companies.

In 2007, we first started up SALICO Hispania in Madrid, Spain, with the key employees of former Mecesa and VAI Cosim Madrid companies. The more international market knowledge and view of this Spanish team combined with the bright technological level of the Italian team in SALICO Spa started bringing in impressive results in our sales and worldwide references in operation in both the aluminium and steel sectors.

Furthermore, the acquisition in 2012 of the British company KCS Herr Voss UK Ltd brought not only technological excellence in very specific processes like strip cleaning and degreasing, and tension levelling, but also a different mindset towards the business approach.

To deal with the North American market, we decided to follow a different strategy with the creation of a Joint Venture SES SALICO with our partners from SES Engineering in Alliance, Ohio, ensuring a high level of technology with the possibility of engineering and manufacturing from the US, fast local service for spare and wear parts, just in time technical assistance, automation support, etc. Four years after the start-up of the JV, we are totally satisfied with the results and with the strong footprint that SALICO has already put in this highly demanding market.

AlCircle: Tell us in brief about Salico’s range of products.

Mr Gerbolés: SALICO supplies finishing lines for the ferrous and non-ferrous industries and basically:

• Slitting lines
• Cut to length lines, Trapezoidal cutting, Multi-blanking…
• Tension Leveling lines
• Recoiling & Inspection lines
• Degreasing and cleaning lines
• Packaging lines

Our lines have been delivered starting from 0.1 mm thick soft aluminium up to 25 mm of carbon steel lines.

AlCircle: Salico has been a major supplier to the aluminium sector. Which segment of the aluminium supply chain remains your key business driver?

Mr Gerbolés: SALICO is mainly focused on highly technological solutions, balanced prices, and direct approach to the customers in a highly flexible way. It is a very important point to say that Salico is run by technical profile persons more than financial; so, our approach to the customers is mainly technical, aiming at always providing optimal technological solutions.

For this reason, we feel comfortable in the most technological side of the business when dealing with automotive or aerospace alloys like 2xxx, 5xxx, 6xxx and 7xxx alloys. Other market segments like can stock, construction, packaging or closures are also a large part of our aluminium business.

AlCircle: As an Italian/Spanish company, which are the key markets for your products and services?

Mr Gerbolés: Obviously, the domestic market is our daily bread and butter, meaning the western European market where we traditionally deliver most of our equipment. Having also delivered technological equipment all over the world, we are also currently servicing our customers in the US, East Europe, the Far East, the CIS market region, etc.

AlCircle: China has been growing fast in the equipment and machinery sector. Has China posed a threat to your business so far?

Mr Gerbolés: No, so far the Chinese engineering companies have not been a threat to SALICO. It is clear that these companies are learning fast and are improving their products, and for this reason, our main goal is to maintain ourselves several steps ahead of them in terms of research and product development, which we practice daily. For technological products, still today, the gap between Chinese and European engineering companies is vast, and in my opinion, this will stay like this for many years to come. Another important factor is the just in time service and assistance given to the customers, which I believe is still a question mark for many Chinese engineering companies.

Finally, the price gap will also be shortened, so, with the years, the Chinese engineering companies will grow their level of expertise and technology and also their prices largely.

AlCircle: Asia is registering a steady growth in the aluminium sector. Tell us in brief about your reach in the Asian market.

Mr Gerbolés: Well, very fortunately, SALICO has been totally overloaded with orders and never had to do a real effort to break through markets like China, which demands a very long and continuous presence of the sales teams in the field. We were successful in a few projects there with tension levelling and cleaning lines, but China has not been considered a strategical market for us.

We were, for example, much more successful in other Far East countries like India and Indonesia, where SALICO is very well known in the aluminium sector with many references of slitting lines, cut to length lines, tension levelling lines, etc.

Also talking about India, this year 2020 has started for Salico with two large orders for Automotive Inspection Lines for one of the biggest Steel producers in India and the world.

AlCircle: How has been Salico’s performance in 2019 and in the first half of 2020?

Mr Gerbolés: Overall the year 2019 was very good for SALICO in terms of order intake and profits. Our group turnover reached the 60 million euros barrier for the first time, which meant a 15% increase from previous year in turnover together with a similar increase in profits.

The present year 2020 will be severely hit by the consequences of coronavirus, but we are ready to overcome this critical situation with a reasonable workload and being financially very strong.

AlCircle: How do you see the effect of COVID19 on your business and on the global aluminium industry as a whole?

Mr Gerbolés: In the short term, it is quite evident that this crisis will mean a severe slowdown on our business. We are witnessing many car manufactures announcing sharp cuts on their yearly productions, which will have a direct impact on the business of many of our customers, and therefore, on us. Also, some of the main aerospace manufacturers have announced similar cut downs, which together with the mentioned slowdown of the automotive sector, will have a very direct impact on the aluminium industry. Other sectors like the construction and packaging will suffer less, according to me. However, it is quite difficult now to foresee the market trend in the medium and long term. But I strongly think that the world will keep rotating, and the aluminium industry will recover its healthy situation soon. The big question mark is about time. Right now, it is very adventurous to try to respond to this question, but by nature, I am optimistic at the same time than a realistic person.

AlCircle: Have you taken any measures to combat this epidemic and continue offering sustainable business to your customers during the time ahead?

Mr Gerbolés: Well, yes, of course, we have taken all measures to combat the pandemic internally in all our companies, and we started with this process even before our governments in both Italy and Spain dictated some mandatory regulations. As a result, despite the fact that Italy, Spain, and the UK have been very severely impacted by the virus, we are proud to say that we have only suffered one infection case within our 160 direct employees, and very fortunately, the person has already recovered.

To be able to offer our customers a sustainable business during the time ahead, we will rely on our global presence with the possibility of offering almost the complete supply chain with engineering, project management, manufacturing, supply, and technical assistance from three countries in Europe, from the USA with our joint venture SES Salico, based in Alliance Ohio, and from India where we are strongly supported by our longtime partner Uniseven from Kolkata.

AlCircle: What is your future business outlook for Salico in the medium and long term, especially after this COVID19?

In the medium term, SALICO will maintain the clear philosophy of developing highly technological solutions at balanced prices, together with a very flexible approach to our customers.

In the long term, being Salico a four families owned company, we are working in the preparation of the next management generation, with members belonging to the families and also members external to them. The new generation will be soon ready to take over, and hopefully, the market environment enables them to follow a similar business model and strategy that has been so successful for us in the past.