Part 1: Company History and Information of WAM

Kate:
I am very glad to visit WAM Shanghai today and had a pleasure to sit here with Mr.Paolo Carnelli to tell us the story of WAM. Firstly, could you introduce WAM Shanghai and WAM group?
Paolo :
Thank you. WAM is an Italian company, born in 1968, which was a company founded by our president Vainer Marchesini. The company was founded to produce screw conveyor for the construction industry. From there our business little by little grew and we introduced new products like filters, valves, other accessories related to the construction sector. After the success we had on the Italian market, the next step for our president and for the small group of people working with him at that time they decided to grow in the European market and to go abroad and also that strategy was very successful at the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s. So WAM grow from a small Italian company into a company that was known all around the Europe. Many offices were opened at that time in France, Germany, Belgium and all around Europe. Then in the 80s, the strategy of the group was to move, also our sales and our products from the construction industry to other industries so that we could keep our growth more stable. So we started to customize and develop products for other industries like chemical industry, food industry, waste water industry, and agriculture industry. And so in the 90s WAM was already a company that was present almost all around the world and also present in many different sectors and industries.
Regarding China, we came to China very early in 1986 with our first distributor in Hong Kong, who is still our customer today. We had a very long cooperation. In 1996 we opened our first fully owned company to produce a screw conveyor in Shanghai for the Chinese construction market. In those years, China started to develop especially in infrastructure so fast, so that our company started to grow very fast together with the growth of China. In China we follow the same strategy that was followed by the group in Italy and that means to grow and develop new industry like food industry, chemical industry etc. So today I would say we are an example of a very successful company in China that has grown very rapidly. Today we are a leader in this market.
Kate:
How many staff does WAM Shanghai have today?
Paolo:
In China, we have more than four hundred people. Our factory is located in Wuxi, in Shanghai we have the commercial offices. We started almost from zero. I think it is a great result for us and I think the things don't stop here, we also think that we have a great future in China. We can grow more and more.
Kate:
I noticed that there is a very beautiful background behind us. I believe it's the concept of your company. Could you explain some words for us?
Paolo:
These are the words that represent the values of our company. As you can see this is like an airport board where usually you have the name and the number of the flights. Here you can find: integrity people, passion, customer, responsibility and team. These are the words that were choose by our staff, the people working in WAM to represent our company. So these are the main value that represent today WAMGROUP. 

 

Part 2: Core Products and Services Industries of WAM

Kate:
We all know that WAM is very famous for its excellent products. Could you introduce the main products of WAM and what are the advantages of your products?
Paolo:
WAM was born as a produce of screw conveyor and screw conveyor is still one of our main products that where we sell and where we are successful. Other products are valves, many kinds of valves, filters and mixers. These are in brief the categories of products that we produce. If you look at our catalogue we have more than 100 products in our range.
The advantage is that as we are based in China with the production with presales, sales, aftersales and also marketing. We are able to compete on the same level with the Chinese competitors. And as we are an Italian, a European company with a long experience of more than 50years, we have developed a very strong technology and this can be reflected in the product that we produce also here in China that absolutely have the same quality of the products that we make in Italy.
Kate:
Powder technologies are comparatively very stable in the world. So do you have any new technologies to share with us in recent years? Will you bring some new products technologies in IPB this July?
Paolo:
For sure this July we will have some products upgrades. Recently we are working both on product upgrades especially on mixers, valves, dust collectors ，screw conveyors. we are making brand new products to make brand new products takes time, so I am not sure we will be ready for this July for the IPB but for sure we will be ready next year. This year we will take a very interesting upgraded presentation.

 

Part 3: Industry Insight and Outlook

Kate:
How many years have you worked in this industry?
Paolo:
Well I've been in China since 2006. So it's 15 years that have been working on this market. Before I was also working for our headquarter in Italy. So it's been more than 20 years that are working in this industry.
Kate:
Can you share some of your thinking and expectations of this industry to our audience?
Paolo:
I think especially related to China we still have a lot to grow. I mean the different industry in general have a lot to grow. Industries like food industry, chemical industry, plastic industry, battery and energy related industries waste water industries. All these are industries that I think have a great future in China and we have seen just the beginning. This is a country that really has potential. I believe that is still very much undisclosed, still a lot of room to grow. 
Kate:
I really appreciate your optimistic. I think you have a vision here. 
Paolo:
Well I don't know if I have a vision but I can tell you that in the last 15 years the growth of China and the WAM has been really fantastic. And I'm really very optimistic that we are just at the beginning.

 

Part 4: Opportunities and Challenges Posed by the Epidemic

Kate:
From last year, we are facing the difficulties brought by COVID-19 pandemic. As WAM is an international company. So I'm sure we are also facing some difficulties and also some opportunities brought by this panic. How did WAM solve these difficulties?
Paolo:
2020 was a tough year especially at the beginning when the pandemic came out. So we suffered for like 2 or 3 months like everybody and every company in China and then all around the world. After that luckily China reacted very fast. And our company could react very fast. The market recovered in a very quick and very steady way. So last year we also could grow compared to 2019 which is really a great success. And also what happened with the problem of the pandemic is that technicians and people in general from our headquarter in Italy could not travel to China as they were used to do usually. We have this kind of exchange but this could not happen last year and I believe this was at the beginning a disadvantage but then what I noticed is that our people our team our staff had to step up and take more responsibility and solve problems that before maybe they were asking to our headquarter. So I think this at the end is an advantage because here in a faster time we have a team that has become more professional and more able to take on himself more responsibilities. 
Kate:
So comparing to a comparing to 2019, how is the business going of WAM?
Paolo:
For us it's very good. I must say much better than what we expected.  In China the market of construction recovers very quickly. And also we can see in other industries in other sectors that the market is growing brilliant. So we take advantage from this we are very happy of our sales and our growth on the Chinese markets.

 

Part 5: Suggestions and Expectations for IPB of Powder Exhibition

Kate:
WAM is very valuable friends of IPB for many years we have cooperated for like 10 years ago and you are our very good exhibitor? What is your expectation of IPB and how do you feel of the so many years the participation of IPB?
Paolo:
IPB is one of our main events for WAM during the year as an exhibition. And it’s very much targeted on the type of customers that we are looking for. Many of the exhibitors at IPB are really our customer or our potential customers. So although the exhibition still is not very big is for sure a valuable exhibition. What we hope to find more and more is of course more and more people coming and more and more professional people coming and people that have interests in our products and to find new solutions for their needs.
Kate:
Yes. The customer from which industry will you expect more? 
Paolo:
Well recently the battery sector is very hot. We hope to find potential customers for the battery sector but also for chemical and maybe food sector. 
Kate:
Thank you very much for your suggestion IPB should find a very good direction for this year too. Thank you very much for your time and your very valuable sharing to our industry. 
Paolo:
Thank you for having me for this interview. It’s very kind of you and I wish WAM and IPB a very good success.
 

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