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[December 2007]
Ton-Up for Sacmi as it Motors to Mumbai
Sacmi (Imola, BO, Italy) – the world’s largest manufacturer and supplier of ceramic production equipment and machinery – has firmly signalled its endorsement of the Indian Ceramics 2008 exhibition in Mumbai by ramping up its space at the event. Compared to the 2007 event, Sacmi has nearly trebled the size of its stand and will next year be represented on a 100 square metre display.
Sacmi has steadily been adding to its portfolio over recent years and now has specialist divisions covering supplies to the heavy clay and technical ceramics sectors – in addition to those for the tile, sanitaryware, refractories and tableware sectors on which it built its name.
The massive group, which in total employs over 3,700 people (1,950 in the Ceramic Division) all around the world, designs, manufactures and installs body preparation plant, casting machines, presses, moulds, dies, cutters, dryers, glazing lines, automatic handling and storage systems, kilns, screen printing units, sorting, handling and palletising lines, plant control, robotics, automation, ancillaries and undertakes full turnkey project management.
The group, which has divisions dedicated to designing, building and marketing machines for ceramics, beverage & packaging, processing and plastics, turned over more than €1 billion last year and exported a mighty 84.6% of that amount. These sales generated EBITDA of €97 million, EBIT of €60 million and net group profits of €13.5 million. The Ceramic Division’s share of turnover in 2006 was 65%, standing at €695 million.
The immediate area served by the Indian Ceramics series of exhibitions (this is the third) is an increasingly important one for innovators and suppliers such as Sacmi and the Imola based company has already scored successes in the local manufacturing market.
A recent example of this was its collaboration with Liberty Group – best known in India for shoemaking originally – which has recently announced that it will be doubling output capacity at its new ceramic operation. Thanks to new Sacmi-supplied machines, the plant at Neemrama – in the province of Rajasthan – will reach, by 2009, an annual production capacity of 600,000 pieces per annum of ceramic sanitaryware.
Although a relatively recent addition to the ceramic sanitaryware production scene, Liberty is reported to be displaying remarkable dynamism in international markets and has established production and sales partnerships that span from Europe to South Africa and South America.
Liberty has set its sights on the top end of the market, which is currently expanding in India at the rate of 20%-25% and its ambition has been described as the goal of becoming, by 2010, thanks to a strengthened corporate structure and Sacmi-supplied machines and know-how, the most important Indian producer of ceramic sanitaryware.
Another demonstration that Sacmi is serious about India and, with its greatly expanded presence at the Mumbai event, serious about Indian Ceramics 2008.
www.indian-ceramics.com
ENDS