Insight

A review and preview of the global fastener market

Named after the Roman god who is often depicted as having two faces – due to its ability to look to the future and to the past – the Janus Perspective is a unique feature that includes a wide cross section of global fastener business leaders, who have all contributed their retrospective of 2019 and thoughts on prospects and challenges for 2020.

Paolo Poppi, director general

The last 12 months have been very challenging but, at the same time, crucial for VIPA. We have laid the foundation for further development of our company with a view to strengthening our commercial offer.

For instance, in the last few months we have inaugurated a new plant at our headquarters in Rolo, Italy. This includes a new automated warehouse, equipped with five robot aisles of picking – putting us at the forefront of modern technologies and enabling us to store up to 120,000 pallets over an area of around 23,500m².

In addition to this, the recent upgrading has made the whole system able to work around the clock by means of the automation. This aspect, maybe the more important aspect, will enable us to produce relevant improvements in terms of order management – by speeding up all the in-house processes and therefore the shipment of goods to clients.

Currently, we are able to process up to 2,700 order picks that lead to a potential shipment capability of 420 orders on a daily basis. This is, without any doubt, an important goal we have accomplished but our perspective is always oriented to the future and this is why significant investment is still ongoing.

The next stage is to enhance our Kanban service, and for this purpose, we are enlarging the storage facilities. This work will be completed in the opening months of 2020 and, once the whole system is operating at full capacity, we will be able to offer a more efficient service, tailored to customers’ requests and requirements.

The quality of the products and the attention to the customers’ exigencies are the main guidelines that have led our company throughout its development process, from the origins until today. With this in mind, we have decided to invest and will continue to do so in the next year by trusting in our growth potential and in the opportunities offered by the fastener market.

However, our company has to face the effects of the new economic slowdown. The Italian economy is currently experiencing a phase of economic stagnation and these difficulties reflect on the fasteners market that remains fairly flat. As a result, the forecasts of closing 2019 are substantially in-line with the expectations and similar to the results of last year. Looking forward to 2020, we expect to face similar difficulties and challenges produced by the economic situation characterised by a continuous instability.

In particular, the unresolved issues linked to BREXIT, and the increasing tensions across the international market arisen by the US-China trade war, don’t facilitate economic recovery in Europe and don’t help revitalise the confidence of economic operators. Despite this, investments are essential for the companies that aim to become a benchmark for the market and want to keep
their strength.

The business cycle has always been characterised by the alternation of periods of economic expansion with periods of contraction. What is essential is to make companies and their production processes ready and suitable to seize the new opportunities of business whenever they will occur. This can only be adequately accomplished by investing in innovation.