Fimal, an acronym for “Fabbrica italiana macchine legno”, was established on May 13, 2013. That date actually marks the transition from longstanding tradition in the woodworking business to a new organization with a different vision of the future.
Cinzia Facchini
“If you think back to what we were and then look at us now, you realize we have gone a long way”, said Cinzia Facchini, co-owner of Fimal with Stefano Morselli and Matteo Mancini – owner of the foundry shop Fondar, a historical partner of the Marche-based company. “We have changed, we have grown by all terms, not only revenues, but also the way we make business, how we relate to our employees, our customers, our partners. We have created a new idea, building on the experience we had acquired at Paoloni, a historical industry company, and moving into a new direction, with a new vision, knowing that we had something different to say.
This resulted into the creation of “Concept” in 2014, the link between the disk saw and the panel saw, a machine that’s still unique and keeps giving much satisfaction, because – after all – this is what we are aiming for… customer satisfaction!
This philosophy, this way of thinking, has driven us to consider also our social responsibility towards the people who work with us, the territory and our customers. We have decided to make big steps towards full sustainability, to optimize our relations to reduce the impact of our business, living the network we have contributed to create in the territory.
It’s a gradual change, with a growing focus on people, on those who decided to work with us and deserve our attention: we have climate-conditioned all the working spaces, including the workshop, and we are building new areas for the canteen and changing rooms, because we believe that if you work in a better environment, you make better products.
We have a long story behind, so we know which and how many responsibilities a company has, we cannot only pursue profits, we must also generate all-round wellness, a value that our customers perceive in our machines”.
Stefano Morselli
“I really believe this is our distinctive feature – added Stefano Morselli – and today we can be proud to celebrate our achievements: a strong team, with a clear all-round vision which we are pursuing all together, going beyond our specific roles in the company, sharing goals, methods and the strong determination to discuss with our customers al over the world, to give them what they really need.
The results of recent years, the congratulations we receive from the users of Fimal machines for their quality and effectiveness, all of this suggests that we have done and we are doing a good job: functional machines, even “pleasant” to use, a real expression of “made in Italy”, arising from constant interaction, listening to the requests, messages and needs from our customers around the world”.
“We have spent the first ten years constantly striving to see how and where we can improve”, continued Cinzia Facchini. “I am thinking about the decision to give priority to the quality of our products, at any cost. I think about the decision to reorganize our supplier network, selecting companies that follow our own principles and allow us to work in proximity, with all the positive consequences in terms of sustainability of our working organization. We decided to share Fimal’s success with all those who work with us, distributing business bonuses at the end of each year, and recognizing that a company can be the core of a virtuous circle, where people feel at ease, work comfortably, put passion into the machines they make. We want to be dreamers, maybe visionaries, as we believe that a company is not all about “duty”. We have never been like the rest of entrepreneurs, we have always tried to go our own way, maybe doing wrong sometimes, but with the strong belief that, at the end of the road, no matter how long, there is greater satisfaction!”.
“Looking back on ten years since we started is a strong emotion”, Stefano Morselli continued. “Being ready to acknowledge the value of each person, even those with a different opinion, really impacted the quality of innovation of our machines, generating new ideas in an atmosphere of continuous sharing that involves the entire company.
We are always ready to understand, to learn: it’s an essential attitude when you are confronted with customers from different countries, with different ways and habits. Today, we export more than 80 percent of our production, and we have grown by responding to requests that are often very different from each other. We have just come back from a visit to a reseller who celebrated its 100th anniversary, and we have seen the values that have allowed them to achieve this result: cohesion and sharing.
It’s not easy philosophy: Fimal has increased its revenues year after year, often with high rates, until the “record growth” of last year, when we improved the 2021 result by 30 percent.
In 2023, we will be close to ten million euro, a significant result for a company of our size, which has revived itself by leveraging the past experience, redesigning classical machines to make them better, adding features and performance”.
“We have really revolutionized the way we made classical machines to turn them into success tools for our customers”, said Cinzia Facchini”. “Not only: we have invented, designed, manufactured completely new machines that now represent a significant portion of our revenues.
Let me stress the fact that many people consider traditional machines an “obsolete” segment; in these ten years, Fimal has proved that it is not true, that there are always margins for improvement. We believed in this idea and decided that we wanted to see where we could go, and we undertook a real evolutionary process for the machines included in the Paoloni catalog.
It was not easy and we had to convince several people that it was worth trying to make the same machines in a new way, so that they could be better, more performing and, why not, more beautiful!
We invested a lot in software, and this – combined with the factor that our machines are entirely made in house, supervising each stage, with the added value of a foundry owner in our board – allows us to deliver a machine with a totally different quality compared with international price-focused competitors. We are one of the few producers of classical machines who generate revenues and keep updating and improving the technology we offer.
As we celebrate Fimal’s first ten years, we can say with some pride that we have never “drawn inspiration” from others, sticking to our route even in the hardest times, as we believed in the value of our project.
We have never been scared, and instead, we have tried to collaborate, to establish strong relationships with those who trusted in us”.
And these include your resellers, we imagine…
“Fimal, as you know, makes most revenues through a network of agents and resellers now extending all over the world”, said Stefano Morselli. “These people are our antennas in all the markets, and we interact with them to tune our offer, where necessary. So, we can say that Fimal offers machines that combine the best of different worlds, and for this reason they are an effective solution for many operators, and the recognition we have received in this decade proves that we are on the right way.
We know well that price is a key factor for any investment, but we have never worked on our machines to “make them cheaper”. This is a message we have transferred to our partners very clearly, and today they offer Fimal when the customer is looking for specific technical features; this is the domain where we best show our skills, our solutions; these are the origins of a portfolio of machines that ensure results in the long term”.
Many changes in ten years…
“Really many. Today, you must be able to understand even the smallest signal, but let me say that, for a company born out of the desire to change, this is not a problem”, concluded Cinzia Facchini. “Telling the future of this market is impossible, so all we can do is do our duty and be ready to move into any direction, continuing to invest like we have done so far and also in a new machining center, that has significantly increased the potential of our workshop, in the expansion of our showroom, in the renovation of the façade of our factory next year.. These are key steps to be ready to face the next ten years, and ten years more, offering good machines at a competitive price, because we manage all process stages.
We don’t fear the years ahead: we are working hard for Fimal’s future, opening the doors to new generations and helping them “fall in love” with this job, whatever their role. Step by step, we are build the future Fimal, the organization that will come after us, but that an entrepreneur must cultivate in due time, to steer the generation change with serenity, pursuing the “common good” that a company or an industry represent.
There are people ready to give an even stronger contribution and – just like us – they see the domain of classical machines as an opportunity, a stage where you can be a good actor, offering quality and innovation, proud of your history, of your job, of your ability to shape the future…”.
