Champions of good sense

Grow and then grow some more. Like a mantra, this formula sums up the future of Lameplast Group, an outstanding player in the European sector of production and filling of plastic containers destined for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry. And the numbers confirm it: +25% turnover in 2013, with an export share exceeding 40%. Stefano Lavorini

What a concern! Whenever I return to Lameplast/COC, it’s always a surprise; there’s always something new, something different, something to demonstrate how the people here - the president and co-founder Gianni Ferrari first and foremost - know to face challenges in an intelligent, effective, “simple” and concrete way, with the flavor of Italy’s rural traditions.
This is the same strength of will, the same confidence in the future, which to this day has helped Lameplast Group to overcome events like the 2012 earthquake: a disaster which also wreaked havoc in Novi di Modena, destroying not just towers, castles and homes, but also factories, warehouses and offices.
«Our facilities reported significant damage - Ferrari recalls - and fortunately we were insured. But now I can also say that we were very effective in quickly resuming production while working for two months out of trailer offices set up outside the factory, with the earth still shaking. We managed to operate ahead of schedule, and as of today we have finished all repairs and restored our two facilities to regulation compliance, while rebuilding from scratch the site where we prepare the  moulds».
A purely common sense business practice, one might say, if this didn’t sound like a corruption of that which also takes the form of a commitment to the territory, carried on with determination, passion and a spirit of sacrifice.

Looking forward
Precisely this positive attitude has always been the motor that has driven the concern’s growth.
The results, moreover, are significant in and of themselves, instilling new hopes and kindling hearts, over and against the slowness and difficulties  bridling most of Italy’s industrial system.
«We want to improve even more - states Ferrari - in order to be all the more a point of reference for international concerns in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sector».

Which means, practically and organizationally, that Lameplast will further expand its offer: not only production of containers, including preparation of moulds, prototypes and samples (Lameplast), but also contractor production and filling, as well as research and development in parapharmaceuticals (COC Farmaceutici), supply of single-dose filling machinery (Pentafill) and, generally, all-around consulting for registering pharmaceuticals and whatever else may be necessary for consolidating the group’s partnerships with its customers... And winning new ones, of course.

Business developments
«The market demands innovation, competency and guarantees: and on these very bases we have grown and are building the future of the concerns that make up this group».
In particular, while until now COC Farmaceutici has mostly produced according to formulations supplied by customers, in the future it intends to act within a wider scope: developing medical devices on demand, but also acting as a single supplier capable of orienting the strategies of its partners, supporting them with innovative solutions capable of capturing the attention of the markets. «In other words - Ferrari continues - we are working on the research and development of new products and containers, especially in the ophthalmic sector, in which we have cultivated an authoritative knowledge.

To this end, a new line of products/containers is currently under development, and we are creating a new production department that will make enable us to adequately service the international market. Furthermore, as “preservative free product experts”, we are developing the activities of our Health & Beauty department, which fills parapharmaceutical products like creams, not only in single dose but also any type of tube».

All in Italy and from Italy
With the exception of its subsidiary LF of America Corp, based in Florida, which operates in partnership with the formula company Cosmetic Solutions LLC of Boca Raton, the group works in close contact with its native soil and the “things” that happen for the most part just kilometers away.
In Novi di Modena (MO) lies the Lameplast facility where containers are produced in controlled atmosphere and, a few hundred meters away, that of COC Farmaceutici, designed with future plans in mind that entail the installation of 6 controlled atmosphere production lines. Currently, two are operational for filling medical devices with completely automated, state-of-the-art installations, while another is under construction.

«At the same time we are setting up a new analysis and control lab, so as to make this component of the production chain autonomous from the one in Sant’Agata Bolognese (BO), which has long operated in service of the pharmaceutical sector. Because, that of Novi (which currently manufactures medical devices) is for all intents and purposes a pharmaceutical facility and, indeed, - Ferrari explains - the appropriate ministries will be asked for the necessary authorizations shortly. There is plenty of room in these plans for our many testing, innovation and research activities, as well as the development of new high tech solutions, which we have always engaged in».

As is easy to imagine, in such difficult times for the domestic market, much of the concern’s activity and energies are oriented toward international markets, with a growing share of exports.
Such a scenario suggests the possibility of a profitable delocalization which, nonetheless, Ferrari continues to exclude: «I’m still convinced that Italy is still one of the greatest countries in the world to do business in, in spite of penalizing politics and bureaucracy. Moreover, managing production abroad with our standards would be extremely complex».  
The real protagonists of the ambitious growth plans of this Italian concern that experiments, innovates and tallies successes are the workers, now more than 250 of them, largely young people and women. «We have managed to foster the growth of an efficient management without resorting to externals - Ferrari points out - and today we enjoy the advantage of having created responsible work groups that make decisions as if they themselves were entrepreneurs».  As fare as the women  are concerned, Giovanni Ferrari has no doubts: «They are the “fourth power”. Hand the companies over to them».