Gulfmec: operations, activities and challenges

Gulfmec's full service office in Dubai is looking to harness the immense potential in the region and also tap opportunities available in North Africa

For Gulfmec, 2015 was the year of change. In June, the company opened Gulfmec FZE office. Since 2012 it had been functioning as a branch office of Italmec, attending to relations with the Middle East markets and Gulf countries. Now it has started operating at full capacity in the emirates.

Federico Cellini, CEO, Italmec Group, is satisfied: finally one of the main objectives of the holding, for which he represents the head and untiring engine, has been achieved. Establishing a commercial base in Dubai means a clear commitment to aiming high.

The stakes are not only the development of the Gulf markets but also the possibility to put down roots that will be strategic for the future of the company.

Dubai, thanks to its enviable position, is an ideal bridge for forming increasingly articulated relationships with North African countries; future powerhouses for world development, thanks to the significant potential for growth, hunger for technology and high-level engineering, skilled workmanship and services customised to the needs of clients.

It is also a key position for the Asian market: on one hand is the creation of new links with the states on the opposite side of the Arabian Gulf (above Iran and Pakistan) and on the other hand is the consolidation of previously structured relations with Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

With Dubai as its pivot, Gulfmec aims to become the main centre of trade promotion and the logistic management of purchases. It is not only a fundamental crossroads for exchanges but also a true centre of excellence. All that can rightly be counted among after-sales services and customer assistance provided in the sector, of which Italmec is the undisputed leader. The marketing of Dalmec products and brand will be managed from here.

Italmec will not modify its basic set up on only one point. The financial centre, in fact, will remain firmly anchored in Singapore. The laws of the City State in terms of opportunity and industrial facilities up to the present are among the most advanced.

What makes Italmec so sure of itself in facing such an aggressive market as the Asian one is easily explained through the excellence of its products. They are not only a series of technological characteristics and high quality raw materials. The added value of Italmec consists, in fact, in something that is impalpable but is of revolutionary proportions for the Middle Eastern and Asian area: work safety.

The pneumatic manipulators produced by Dalmec, the Italian company of which Italmec is a commercial vehicle, has in fact, a fundamental merit, which is to take away weight from manual work, guaranteeing at the same time the maintenance of a high level of productivity and very high standards of quality and competitiveness.

Strategy behind growth

Controlling eventual risks and the danger connected to the production chain, reducing accidents and avoiding expenses derived from sanctions and from the interruption of productivity caused when accidents occur.

The implementation of a health management system and safety of workers, therefore, contribute in reducing the cost of work and optimising internal resources and workflows. And not only this: for all companies wishing to position themselves in global markets, reaching high standards of quality and obtaining the security certificate ISO 18000 represent essential qualities at an international level.

Obtaining certification today presents many advantages for companies: first of all it gives the possibility to control and maintain conformity to the laws; secondly it facilitates access to financial procedures and the simplification of bureaucratic procedures; thirdly it guarantees safeguarding of company assets, improvement of the company's brand reputation and a high level of integration with other management systems (for example, the environment).

Dalmec pneumatic manipulators, produced in Cles in Val di Non in the Trento region of Italy, are created to relieve weight from the operator, making it possible to manipulate products in conditions of balance, speeding up the production flow and reducing the number of employees necessary for handling. Therefore these semiautomatic machines optimise the use of human resources within any production chain with an immediate effect on the quality of work and productivity.

The gripping tools applied to each manipulator act, in fact, like real mechanical hands holding and redistributing weight and making it possible to manipulate any type of object, with an angle of movement in space equal to 360° and with complete absence of weight from a minimum of 5 to over 1,400kg. So here are the winning assets that have enabled the company to achieve amazing results in sectors of security and productivity, in which it operates.

Focus on concepts

Because respecting security in the workplace and safeguarding the health of the workers are the foundations of the Italian productive system. Exporting 'Made in Italy' and allowing successful experiences to take root does not only mean promoting the diffusion and marketing of high level products of excellent workmanship with competitive prices but also conveys good practice, central for the growth of a company according to parameters that are productive, social and humane.

An ambitious project, in particular for the market in the UAE, and Asia, in general, where the road ahead, particularly in this field, is still long. For this reason, the presence of Gulfmec in Dubai represents a new opportunity for the companies in the emirates to take up the challenge launched by Italmec's CEO: to produce efficiently and safely. Gulfmec is the ideal partner and indispensable reference point for all national and international industries that are not content to buy only a product but also aim to excel in accordance with international standards. Federico Cellini is the driving force of this winning combination with pride that is all Italian.

Secret to success Revolutionary, like all simple things: his farsightedness enables him to look into the future where others have not (yet) dared.

• Europe