2014: Excellent results and positive trends for Cefla Group

“Cefla,” explains the company President, Gianmaria Balducci, “is today a very heterogeneous multi-business group with a clear vision: based on the strength of our history, we aim to become a big, united and solid company that creates value over time.
In recent years we’ve dealt with the economic crisis taking a positive growth approach, without surrendering to fears in the face of new challenges and change; indeed today we are embarking on a path of renewal that follows a set of principles: to change and become competitive while adapting to new scenarios; to develop new products and new markets; to innovate procedures and agree to always question ourselves so as to avoid the risk that a past success might later become a hindrance. The good results of our last annual balance sheet makes us feel even more positive about the future.“

In 2014 Cefla has completed a number of important high-value projects that involved the entire company, first and foremost among them the Expo Milan 2015 project.

The Expo involved mainly the Plant Solutions and Shopfitting Solutions business units; Plant Solutions was called upon to design and implement the general systems within the Expo buildings: restaurants, bathrooms, trade areas, visitor services, participant services, warehouses and technical rooms (service architecture), including the Coop Supermarket of the Future pavilion in the Future Food District, for which Cefla also provided the furnishing. The Dental Solutions business unit presented a number of important new products at the last international IDS trade fair in Cologne, the most important biennial event for the dental industry, including a dental unit with a chair and patient access from a sitting position and adjustable footrest, and the new wall mounted panoramic imager MyRay Hyperion X5.

The Finishing Solutions business unit was engaged in the completion of the sprinklers and robotics platform, as well as in the consolidation of the “Fusion” + “Inert Coating Technology” introduced in the most important woodworking trade fair in the world, Ligna. The Shopfitting Solutions introduced many new products in the 2014 Euroshop Fair in Düsseldorf – the most important event for the Retail industry which takes place once every three years – including innovative lines of shelving with ultra-thin shelves, a LED lighting system that is fully integrated in shelves, the shopping carts by Filomarket, which was recently acquired. At Expo, together with two other Group companies – Elca Techonologies and Zenith Shop Design – the business unit provided innovative solutions for the Supermarket of the Future, designed by architect Carlo Ratti, Director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Boston.

And there is more. Cefla also worked extensively on its internal corporate structure, launching a review project that examined its organisational model, allocating a lot of space and placing great importance on Corporate Innovation and on Business Development, with the strategic objective of establishing and managing a creative process and a corporate context that would provide Cefla with an optimised organisation and an ability to perform over time along the trail of innovation and development.

A new element within this context of growth and renewal is the important strategic choice to create Cefla International. The new strategic business area is focused on developing Cefla in the United States, China and Russia markets where we have been operating production sites for years.

The 2014 numbers show consolidated group revenues that total over €415 million, with a net worth of over €214 million and a positive net financial position. Numbers that make them look positively towards 2015.

The Board of Directors would like to thank the Cefla Chief Executive, managers and employees for achieving such excellent results.

It was a year of changes, renewals and new projects that are continuing also in 2015, with a very large investment plan that calls for further development of the organisational model and of corporate-wide operation procedures, which will make them increasingly more competitive so to adapt ever more rapidly to new global economic scenarios.