Industry Europe 185

Take a look at an industrial fan fro m

B o l d rocchi – and the chances are ,

it's a lot more than just a fan. It pro b a b l y

incorporates a number of components

that reflect Boldrocchi's unique and wide

range of competences. It goes without

saying that tailor-made products re q u i re a

certain level of expertise – but Boldro c c h i ' s

s t rengths go much further, and its diver-

sity helps balance out the ups and downs

in diff e rent market segments, too.

"When we sell an industrial fan, espe-

cially if it is a 5 MW fan, it isn't a pure fan.

It is more like some layers of pro d u c t

which are put on the fan, which make it

much more rich than the single compo-

nent," said Aeroto Division Export Sales

Manager Giovanni Barbieri. "Our ability to

incorporate diff e rent competences within

the product is very much appreciated by

the customer. This is the strongest leverage

we are experiencing, and this has espe-

cially been so in recent years."

B o l d rocchi's range of activities has

g rown and developed through intern a l

development, strategic investments and

acquisitions over almost a century.

When the company was founded in 1909,

its first activities were industrial ventilation

and thermal exchange. These two main

MULTI-TALENTEDWhether for industrial ventilat i o n , h e at - e x c h a n g e , air pollution control or industrial noise protection,

products and equipment from the Italian Boldrocchi group are tailor-made according to the specific

requirements of customers across all the main industrial sectors. Felicity Landon reports.

184 Industry Europe

LESIER ■ FOOD PRODUCTION

taking to the stove. Through a series of

h u m o rous video clips, lefaitmainre v i e n t . c o m

(in French only) demonstrates simple cooking

techniques such as how to dice an onion, to

beat an egg, tenderise a rib steak etc.”

The spectrum of packagingEver since Georges Lesieur created a new

market with bottled oil in 1924 the com-

pany has never ceased to lead the way in

oil packaging, from the use of more eco-

nomical and practical materials such as

PVC for bottles from 1963 and PET fro m

1985, to the cap with an anti-drip spout

in 1997. “Apart from how it looks, what

counts most for the consumer is the prac-

tical aspect of the packaging,” explains

Romain Nouffert. “For example, last year

we launched a new type of cap which

makes for easier opening of the bottle

and improved pouring of the oil, and

which can be produced in two colours

for aesthetic purposes.”

Bottles of seed oil are typically yellow,

but Lesieur audaciously broke out fro m

the crowd with the launch of Fleur de

Colza in a bright green bottle. “This allowed

us to have more eye impact on the shop

shelf, to let the consumer know immedi-

ately that something new was happening,

and to create a new market segment with

a colour code specific to Lesieur,” says

Romain Nouffert.

As an extension of their attention to pack-

aging, in collaboration with hypermarkets,

Lesieur have developed a new merc h a n-

dising display unit. Romain Nouffert explains

why: “With so many diff e rent types of oil and

d i ff e rent brand names, edible oil space in

hypermarkets had a cluttered feel about it,

the consumer was lost, and oils were in

danger of becoming a commodity pro d u c t .

We decided to tidy things up by separating

the diff e rent types of oils, and highlighting

the new products and special offers so that

consumers could find their way aro u n d

m o re easily.” Consequently, Lesieur is

i n t roducing a better organised and more

attractive m e rchandising display unit in

100 stores throughout France this year.

What’s cooking True to its innovative drive, Lesieur is

gearing up for a major change in the

F rench edible oil market expected for

2006. “For many years an old law forbade

the use of colza oil for cooking in France;

colza was only authorised as a seasoning

oil. However, this summer the AFSSA

( F rench agency for food sanitory safety)

came into line with European legislation

and gave the go-ahead for the utilisation

of colza in cooking,” says Romain

N o u ffert. “We believe that a lot of people

who use sunflower oil in cooking today

will turn either to colza oil or to a com-

bined oil which contains colza oil.”

With the launch of Isio 4 in Spain in

September and three new products on

the home market for the fourth quarter of

2005, Lesieur is certainly stepping up its

policy to develop more and more brand

names to bring added value to the con-

sumer as well as to increase margins and

support innovation and marketing expen-

d i t u re. But with French buying power

dwindling, Romain Nouffert admits that

the competition is getting tough. “Our

major threat today, especially in the

F rench market, is the increasing trend of

consumers turning to first price pro d u c t s

and hard discounters.” The threat lies not

in terms of volume – Lesieur is present in

the sector through the German hard dis-

counter Lidl – but in terms of pro f i t

margin. However, with so many quality

p roducts, Lesieur is well equipped for the

fight. “Our riposte is through innovation

and communication to promote the

added value of our pro d u c t s .

Consequently we have increased our

advertising budget by 20 per cent this

y e a r,” asserts the managing director of

Lesieur whose sales for Fleur de Colza

and Isio Protect increased by 40 per cent

during the television campaign early this

y e a r. Success was equally impre s s i v e

during the summer advertising campaign

on Puget olive oil.

Lesieur has also aff o rded itself a new

slogan: Un peu de Lesieur, un peu de vous,

ça fait tout. “We hadn’t adopted a new

slogan since the 1980s; the idea then was

to bring youth and dynamism to the brand

name while linking it to the rising trend of

home cooking,” says Romain Nouff e r t .

“Indeed, it was through re s e a rch for the

slogan with the advertising agency, that we

d i s c o v e red the new trend of the fast food

generation re t u rning to nourishing no-frills

home cooking, where oil is an ingre d i e n t

that naturally fits in so well.” ■

p roduct lines still re p resent core businesses

for Boldrocchi, while others have been built

up along the way – complementing and sup-

porting the original activities.

B o l d rocchi is based in Biassono – Milan

and employs about 250 people. To d a y,

its range of products includes centrifugal

fans, axial fans, centrifugal blowers, heat

exchangers and air pre-heaters, air- c o o l e d

heat exchangers and condensers, heavy-

duty silencers and enclosures, air intake

and silenced exhaust systems for gas tur-

bines, diverter dampers, air pollution con-

t rol plants, fabric filters and electro s t a t i c

p re c i p i t a t o r s .

European leaderAs a result of its development over the

years, the company is now among the

E u ropean leaders in the production of

industrial heavy-duty fans up to 7MW.

"These are very big, complex machines –

m o re like a plant," said Mr Barbieri." The

same thing happened in thermal exchange;

we had a big development with the nuclear

and military marine sectors – diff e rent fields

of thermal exchange.

" Today we are a leading company in

E u rope for heat exchange products and we

have gained customers all around the world."

B o l d rocchi produces thermal exchange

equipment for customers such as GE,

Technip, KTI, ENI Group, ABB, Ansaldo

Energia, VA Tech, Foster Wheeler, Sirtec

Niigi, Brush. "We are now strongly pre s e n t

and making diff e rent investments in these

fields for the process and energy and

p e t rochemical industries," said Mr Barbieri.

" We steadily moved towards very big

components, i.e., for gas turbines, and

steam turbines, to cool oils and also to

p rocess gas. These have widespre a d

applications in energy oil & gas and

p e t ro c h e m i c a l .

"It is the kind of field that needs invest-

ment both on the production side and on

the engineering side because of the incre a s e

in the dimensions of the components,

which goes step by step with the incre a s i n g

dimensions of the turbines." This is a key

factor in Boldrocchi's success – the

company uses its expertise to develop

components to support customers as

they in turn develop their new pro d u c t s

and equipment.

Project management"Investment in our components is huge;

both financial and project management

a re strong concerns for us and very

important," said Mr Barbieri.

The main ancillaries around a gas turbine

a re within Boldrocchi's field of expertise,

and industrial noise protection pro d u c t s

a re produced within the Aeroto division of

the company, which was created thro u g h

186 Industry Europe Industry Europe 187

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exhaust outlets. While twenty years ago

we used to speak about temperatures as

light as 500 degrees, today, turbine man-

u f a c t u rers are pushing as much as they

can with turbine outlet temperature in

o rder to have much more power. But that

has a big impact on the exhaust system

and starting with the silencer we are now

in a position to give complete exhaust and

bypass systems."

The result, then, is that Boldrocchi is

dealing with more and more complex sys-

tems – products which are more like plants

than single pieces of equipment, and very

r a rely is the company dealing with just a

single component.

" We check and manage the pro d u c t

starting from the engineering right

t h rough to the delivery onsite, so the

value chain is quite wide on every

p roduct," said Mr Barbieri.

Another interconnected activity – pollu-

tion control – is covered by Boldro c c h i

Ecologia, set up in 1970. This division

focuses on various kinds of pollution contro l

within industry, again based on working in

partnership with customers. The pro d u c t

range includes back filters, pre c i p i t a t o r s ,

scrubbers, coolers for gas, reactors, fans

and re t ro-fitting of equipment.

The main markets served by Ecologia

a re the steel, metals and cement indus-

tries as well as power and incinerator

plants. "A key area is turnkey plants for

cement and steel plants" said Mr Barbieri.

" We have the technology in this field."

First ordersB o l d rocchi was originally set up in Milan,

w h e re the founder Luigi Boldrocchi took

his first orders for the supply of centrifugal

fans in 1909. A 3,000 square metre pro-

duction area was opened in 1911.

In 1914, the first plant for air pollution

c o n t rol was produced; the company

o ff e red a wide range of products, including

radial and axial fans, fire-tube boilers,

coolers, dryers, and ventilation and heat-

exchange units and plants.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the com-

p a n y became a regular supplier to the

main Italian industrial groups, the ministry

of defence, the naval yards and the state

railways. The first air conditioning equipment

for industrial and civil uses were developed;

important contracts were at the Scala

T h e a t re in Milan, the Parliament building

in Rome, and in the very first submarines.

After the Second World Wa r, the business

was continued by Giuliano Boldro c c h i ,

who pro g ressively moved away from stan-

d a rd equipment towards specific indus-

trial fields, including power pro d u c t i o n ,

the electromechanical industry and the

major shipbuilders.

In 1970 a new factory was built and this,

with some later extensions, is Boldro c c h i ' s

p resent site.

The factory is divided into five bays, has

a manufacturing area of over 15,000 square

m e t res, and is equipped with thermal,

acoustic and aeraulic test facilities. Sixty

technicians work on the four main pro-

duction lines – ventilation, heat-exchange,

air pollution control and industrial noise

p rotection. A wide range of materials is

used, including steel and copper alloys,

aluminium, titanium and plastic materials,

and more than 100 welding processes have

been qualified. Products go through inter-

mediate and final testing, witnessed by

customers or by delegated inspection

authorities.

Close integrationThe Boldrocchi group comprises various

companies that can offer solutions for dif-

f e rent production lines – but Mr Barbieri

points out that there is close integration

between the diff e rent parts of the gro u p .

" We work in diff e rent fields embedded

in the group," he said. "We experience a

g reat deal of synergy between the diff e re n t

divisions and this synergy is one of the

s t rong points of the company.

Despite recent difficult years for the

i n d u s t r y, we had a double advantage

because of our strong synergy between

the diff e rent divisions; firstly, added value

– one division can contribute to the pro d u c t

of the other, and that is a winning point for

the company, and secondly, financial. For

example noise protection or treatment can

be used in conjunction with our other

p roduct expertise. There is very strong co-

operation between the diff e rent divisions."

"Our traditional market was in Italy but

in the past ten years we have been

working with more and more foreign com-

panies," said Mr Barbieri. "Tu rnover is

now more than 50 per cent outside Italy.

But also, our major customers in Italy sell

their products all over the world – so our

p roducts are everywhere . "

Cruise shipsB o l d rocchi works closely with Italian ship-

y a rd Fincantieri both in the cruise ship

and military sectors and over the past ten

years has supplied the silencers for the

p restigious cruise ships built at the yard

for operators such as Carnival and P&O.

The company remains wholly family

owned and that, says Mr Barbieri, is a big

plus. "Mr Boldrocchi is the most active

person in the company. He is very focused

on tradition, which is a big guarantee for

the company, and on innovation as well.

" B o l d rocchi continues to invest in our

people and our brand. It is all very positive."

He added: "We are in effect a manufac-

turing company with strong competencies

in the engineering and development of

p roducts. We seldom work with standard-

ised products – we work almost exclusively

on tailor-made engineering products. Our

s t rength is in development of the pro d u c t s .

We work job by job, starting from the com-

ponents right through to the big plant." ■

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188 Industry Europe Industry Europe 189

the acquisition of Aeroto, a company

active since 1952 in the field. The story of

development is similar here .

"A gas turbine needs some inlet d e v i c e s

and exhaust devices, for collecting and

t reating gases," said Mr Barbieri. "These

two components have become steadily

m o re important over time because of the

i n c reasing dimensions and output of the

power units. Twenty years ago we were

speaking of gas turbines having significa-

tively lower power output. Now we are

talking up to about 280 MW. Treating air

inside and gas outside has become an

important business in the pro c e s s .

"Our inlet and exhaust system has its

own peculiarity. Noise treatment has

become one of the main issues. We can

implement filtration and the proper tech-

nology to treat the air.

"So we started as noise specialists and

we embedded this technology into a

wider range of products, such as inlet

systems. Because of the dimensions and

power interfaces, this re q u i red a major

investment on the engineering side.

" We can now supply a complete range

of intake systems, with soundpro o f i n g ,

with our own technology. So we have

developed on the technical, pro d u c t i o n

and financial side.

Exhaust systems"The same thing happened for the exhaust

systems. We manufacture hot silencers,

for higher than 600 degree centigrade

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