Cifarelli, an italian story
Raffaele Cifarelli and wife Rita founded his company in 1967 in Voghera now celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with a packed schedule of event planned to underscore the role played by intuition and creativity in the life of a manufacturing industry. The festivities are also intended as a look into the future bringing further development thanks to a new organization of the company
Three days of celebrations from June 17 through 19 featuring a music festival, a photo workshop and charity benefits as well as the presentation of limited edition machinery lines are on the full schedule set up by Cifarelli in Voghera, near Pavia, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the manufacturer of agricultural, gardening and groundskeeping machinery. On the bill are Chris Cacavas & Edward Abbiati with The Dirty Devils, Mandolin’s Brothers, Cheap Wine, Daniele Tenca & The Working Class Bande and especially the Paolo Fresu Quintet jazz groups and visual arts seminars centered on the studies of Roberto Cifarelli, the head of the company’s R&D department and still photographer devotee, to illustrate the history of the manufacturer, the story of creativity, human relations and the intuitive side of work. The Voghera company specializes in mist blowers, shakers and leaf blowers and vacuums since beginning work in 1967 in a small shop on the outskirts of the city where founder Raffaele Cifarelli and his wife, Rita, turned out their first machines, motorized knapsack mist blowers given the brand name Nuvola. The success of these products led to the manufacturer of tractor mounted mist blowers and the company’s first venture into diversification. By 1984 Cifarelli was into the production of brushcutters and the construction of a new site facing the plant opened in 1975, which replaced the original shop. The first step into diversification was scaled back in 1994 by stopping production of brushcutters due to the small market share achieved. But this move turned out to be fundamental for pursuing growth. Cifarelli then began developing special niche products to become a leading competitor around the world.
President Renato Cifarelli declared, “Our objective is to develop machines capable of satisfying our customers, anticipating their latent requirements if possible. To do this we have a research and development department very active on the side of obtaining patents. Even for a mature product like mist blowers, we’ve been able to introduce various innovations which have achieved important recognition, such as the EIMA International New Techniques Prize.” He went on to say, “For example, we have designed modular machines with numerous accessories which can easily be mounted by the operator and we’ve gone deep into innovation in the sector of shaker hooks to become a market leader with the ongoing development of products.
And finally, we are among the leaders in our compartment by betting on the continuous implementation of technologies and are often imitated by others. This is a very negative fact from the ethical and economic points of view but, in substance, shows the scale of our success.” Equally important in the Cifarelli story is the strategy of looking abroad. President Renato also noted that, “Gianfranco Cifarelli, has played a fundamental role because he made it possible to create a sales network abroad with a clear vision of the requirements of the markets and adapting machinery for the global market. It is by no chance that exports now account for 95% of our sales” he added. In a time when many enterprises are delocalizing, the Voghera manufacturer has decided to remain vertical by producing in house injection plastic items and finishing them and driving research and development to improve know-how derived by in house production processes.
For Cifarelli, this means marketing top quality machines able to stand up to what is mainly Chinese competition with high production of goods inferior to the Cifarelli detailed machines. From this position, Emak in Lombardy signed an agreement in 2016 for the acquisition of 30% of Cifarelli. Renato Cifarelli said on this dear, The accord, on one hand, allows us to design with with a tranquil view of our future and, on the other, technical collaboration as well as the distribution of products through Emak branches. In other words, we have laid the groundwork for another expansion cycle.”
