For FKgroup, company from Dalmine (BG) specializing in technological solutions and services for the textile and clothing industry (from CAD systems to plotters, from automatic cutting of fabrics to fully automated cutting rooms), technological innovation has been the keystone that has always guided its activities. «We are a state-of-the-art industrial group, – explains Fabrizio Sangalli, Managing Director at Fkgroup – constantly looking to new technologies that can supply the entire production cycle for companies in the textile/clothing industry, technical fabrics and their composites». Today FKgroup has 8 million Euros turnover and 40 employees.
Background and current activities
The fabric spreading machine department dates back to 1961, but the company with the current corporate name was founded in 1981. «In 1987 – continues Sangalli – we developed our CAD software application and in 1991 we sold our first automatic cutting machine. A path that leads us today to a worldwide installed fleet with more than 3000 customers that witness the high quality of our products and services».
Concerning the present situation, the company from Bergamo is currently involved in completing the range of spreaders and development of laser technologies for projecting pictures on cutting machines, in addition to the continuous refinement of its CAD system which by its nature must always be evolving. «Today we can offer a range of products that are able to fully satisfy the production cycle of the textile/clothing industry, technical fabrics (I refer to automotive-aviation-medical, and so on)», says Sangalli. «I believe our ability consisted in having been able to develop our products homogeneously, so that today we don’t have a flagship product compared to others. Our software, spreaders and automatic cuts have been all developed with the same passion and giving them the same importance precisely because of our indissoluble vocation to quality, indispensable feature for a company like ours that develops technology and designs products that are intended to be part of the production context of our clients».
The current core business of Fkgroup is the textile/clothing area, but also the technical textile share is slowly increasing while our clients’ typology is shifting toward up-market, both for the quality of their products and the dimensions of the companies. In fact today the company from Bergamo has very important brands among its clients.
Concerning future objectives in order to expand the typology of its clients and its offering, Sangalli states that «our range of products is already wide enough and we are strongly interested in keeping their excellence from a technological point of view; in fact soon we will not operate in other sectors as we prefer consolidating and remaining at the forefront in ours. What we are already doing and will continue doing is to improve and expand our sales organization in order to improve our market coverage in various countries around the world. Only this year we have introduced new distributors in nine countries, and I think this is the coherent result of our strategies».
State-of-the-art technologies and services
We initially said that all Fkgroup activity has always been guided by cutting-edge technology. But what is their most innovative product? «Certainly our CAD for clothing, developed by a team of experts which has been dealing with this task for more than twenty years, and the advantage of having a fleet of more than 2000 currently installed licenses. Having many numerical customers allows growth in experience referred to the application of the product to various needs and this is a very important element to continually improve the product in terms of reliability and performance; therefore, having an important customer base together with a proper corporate philosophy has allowed us to reach a certain excellence level».
In terms of services, post-sales support and service have a strategic importance: in fact FKgroup has devoted much attention in completing the offering through well-balanced maintenance and development contracts (in the case of software) in order to keep in perfect working conditions the production facilities by anticipating possible contingencies in favor of almost total reduction of downtimes. «On top of this – continues Sangalli – add the technical advice concerning the resolution of management issues related to production and design, putting at our customers’ disposal not only the tools that are needed to produce, but the great experience of our people and the necessary expertise in order to increase performance by optimizing the production process».
The market
FKgroup operates on a difficult market. Let’s try to understand what were and are the strategies put in place by the company to deal with the problem. «We immediately chose quality. This word – resolutely states Sangalli – echoes in our organization and is meant in the broadest sense of the term. A choice that has required large investments and so much effort, sometimes making us seem even countercurrent on a market that apparently rewards those who have pointed to price. Today our figures confirm that we made the right choice also thanks to versatility and willingness through which we deal with our customers’ demands. The “strategies” topic is complex and consists of many aspects that contribute to the final result. Each company has its own way of expressing itself and it is difficult to consider right or wrong the choices that it makes: they are simply different from each other. But I take advantage of your question to speak about a sensitive and topical aspect of our industry by expressing my personal opinion. Today the market is seriously damaged by those manufacturers who point to prices and payment conditions that are untenable for those who produce today in Italy in order to gain market shares, and effectively weakening the entire system. This modus operandi especially by Italian builders is one of the issues that prompted us to choose what I call “countercurrent”; so for us quality and high level of service have been our trump card together with the investments we made to expand our distribution abroad, which today is about 70% of our turnover».
