Always connected with the market
Operate in complete safety, and onward with confidence
Alberto Vacchi, President and CEO of IMA, design and production of automatic machines for the process and packaging.
IMA has remained in business since the production of automatic machines and related services are essential for the food and pharmaceutical supply chains. «During the lockdown period - explains Alberto Vacchi - the Group has made every effort to respond to the requests of its customers all over the world, in full compliance with the regulations and prescriptions issued to prevent contagion. IMA launched "Stay Connect!" the platform which, within a single touchpoint, enhances and makes the entire range of digital products created by the Group easily accessible. In addition to the support represented by connected machines to remotely monitor the state of health of the systems, the platform offers products for technical assistance, augmented and virtual reality, applications for digital documentation, training in their various forms. In short, a single platform guarantees an interaction never achieved before with machines and systems. We also achieved good results and experimented with new relationships remotely with customers with the 500 people in smart working... An experience that will also be useful in the future».
Since the early stages of the Covid-19 emergency, the company has promptly taken a series of actions to ensure safety conditions at work. «Our priority - underlines Vacchi - was in fact protecting the health of our employees, while ensuring continuity of production in total safety».
Full operation was also ensured by a consolidated and efficient subcontracting network. «IMA's approach to the supply chain has always been innovative and, over time, we have perfected an unconventional model. The scheme has evolved with the participation of IMA in the share capital of the most strategic suppliers, allowing us to better face the recent challenges. Moreover, a model that is perfectly consistent with the logic of Industry 4.0». And precisely in the wake of the logical ones, the choices and technological investments undertaken have proved useful to face the situation.
«Investments in Research and Development (53.9 million euros in 2019) proved to be very useful, as was the acquisition policy. In this period IMA has carried out with extreme speed, thanks to the subsidiary Teknoweb acquired in 2015, the design and manufacture of an automatic machine for the production of surgical masks. The IMA Face400 is an innovative machine, to which the whole company has worked with pride to make a contribution of collective interest. This is an important technical development which confirms, once again, the great industrial and engineering flexibility that characterizes the Group. The Civil Defense has chosen this machine which is attracting a lot of interest on the international market».
In addition to the operational measures put in place, the economic and financial actions taken since the first moments of the Covid-19 emergency have also been designed to mitigate their effects.
«The Group's results in the first quarter reflect the economic and financial impact of the emergency - admits Vacchi - yet the solidity of IMA, combined with the great innovative capacity that distinguishes the Group, will allow us to face the next phases of the emergency with optimism, better planning this period of high uncertainty.
The consistency of the order backlog (908.3 million euros at March 31, 2020) and the number of projects currently being negotiated, including significant amounts, represent a positive sign even if they do not provide total visibility over the entire year. We are led to look with confidence at the rest of the year, although the emergency situation continues to involve not only Italy, but the whole world. If the signals indicated above will be confirmed during the year - concludes Vacchi - we believe that the Group can achieve a result that is not significantly lower than in the previous year».
