E80 Group to invest 20 million euros to expand LGVs production facility
The company is investing in a business network based on a criterion of geographical proximity
Combining a business growth plan with the economy of a community, generating positive social and environmental impacts in the territory thanks to a sustainable “short supply chain” model, leveraging the potential of local resources with a vision of the global dimension. It was faithful to this orientation that the E80 Group, a multinational among the market leaders in the design and installation of automated and integrated intralogistics solutions for consumer goods companies, carried out, in close collaboration with Gor.Far. , an industrial development operation with the recovery of a new production hub in San Prospero di Carpineti (Reggio Emilia, Italy), the latest in a “constellation” of facilities, born from the remodeling of existing structures, which in recent years have transformed the “Mechatronics Valley” of Reggio in world-class excellence.
Following an infrastructure recovery scheme in the area already adopted for four other locations, the investment totals 20 million euros that will be allocated to the renovation and organization of a disused 12,000-square-meter plant, where more than 100 new team members, mainly young people, will work.
When fully operational, the new division in Carpineti will allow the Group to double the production capacity of automated laser-guided vehicles (AGV and LGV) produced, from the current 1,000 to more than 2,000 AGV/LGVs each year.
In addition to the important productive, economic and employment impact in the region, the plant will generate a positive return on several fronts from the environmental and sustainable point of view, avoiding new land consumption thanks to the rehabilitation of a disused building and ensuring the plant’s energy self-sufficiency due to the photovoltaic panels installed throughout the facility.
“These redevelopment operations are good for our territory and for people because they improve the environment and create job opportunities,” commented Mimmo Costetti, founder and partner of Gor.Far. and LGVs Unit director of E80 Group. “In the coming months, the hiring of a hundred or so people specialized in manual welding performed with ultra-modern self-aspirating equipment for maximum health protection, in the programming of work centers, press brakes and CNC laser cutting of the latest generation of E80 Group’s LGVs that make up the fleet of machines in this new plant will start. We are talking about systems that are then installed in the plants of customers around the world.”
The new plant dedicated to producing laser-guided vehicles will work in synergy with existing production hubs such as the E80 Group LGV’s Carpentry, which opened in 2018, also the result of a redevelopment of a 2,200-square-meter building. The two existing hubs currently employ about 100 people.
The mechanical components are then sent to the logistics hub in Rondinara, another 12,000 square meters the result, in turn, of the redevelopment of an existing facility, the former Isla Tiles plant, which has been idle for more than 20 years; this is where LGVs are designed, assembled and tested before being shipped to customers’ factories.
In addition to these operations, there is also the plant dedicated to robotic systems, from palletizers to wrappers, also born from a redevelopment operation carried out by E80 Group of an existing building of more than 4,000 square meters, the former Stilfreni, in Viano. The picture is completed with the hub reserved for the design of about 3,000 square meters of automatic warehouses.
The result is a business network based on a criterion of geographical proximity; all facilities being located on the perimeter of a road “ring” less than 100 kilometers (around 62 miles) long. Approximately 700 people work within this area, out of a total of more than 1,000 employees in the Group’s 14 locations worldwide.
The benefits in terms of sustainability, innovation, safety and reliability are evident, as a result of the long-term vision that the E80 Group has been pursuing for years through the development of a short supply chain that, as explained by Enrico Grassi and Vittorio Cavirani, respectively president and vice-president, chairman of the E80 Group “allows us to increase production in an optimized way, with greater quality control and a drastic reduction in intervention times. Being able to verify, ‘just in time’, the entire process”
They add that it also “allows us to minimize the margins of errors, inefficiencies and waste, guaranteeing customers around the world the quality and innovation that have always distinguished us”.
The overall development plan is aimed at keeping the production of the systems within the local production fabric, through a selected network of suppliers, thus generating a positive impact through induced activities as well.
“We decided to invest many years ago in a short supply chain, where suppliers are partners, achieving important results, starting from this very Valley,” the executives recall. “We want to restore value to this land, investing to redevelop areas and facilities, proposing quality projects, offering training opportunities that can enhance the value of young people, creating skilled employment with an important impact on the entire production chain. Our goal is always to grow while contributing to the creation of a regenerative ecosystem.”
“The territory is a fundamental lever for our Group with which we share strong values that help us overcome every challenge, with the awareness that we represent a resource for the communities that live there,” they concluded.
