Every birthday represents an achievement and, of course, it’s worth celebrating, especially if it is a 50th anniversary of a company. It is an achievement to be proud of, especially in an historical moment like the present one. It is an achievement that does represent a destination point, but at the same time it is a starting point for a company like VM Spa that is constantly looking at the future of the ceramic market, which is in very fast evolution.
A bit of history
The company was founded in 1967 by Eli Vincenzi, Francesca Vincenzi’s husband who passed away prematurely in 2000, together with Nello Montagnani – his partner of that time.
Thanks to Eli’s (known as Cicci in the local ceramic market) brilliant intuition, the enterprise from being a small laboratory for engraving matrices, became a medium-sized company.
Cicci’s winning idea, deeply moved by a strong passion, was understanding before anyone else that a particular coating applied to punches would have avoided a lot of downtimes in ceramic companies, which were before necessary to clean the mould from powder when pressing tiles.
The importance of this intuition is remarkable: before this idea, to make a tile it was necessary to stop the press in ceramic every 10 minutes to clean the mould. Now with Cicci’s idea the machine could work for several hours without stopping, with a considerable economic return for the customer. This characteristic gave the specific name to these items “Ceramic punches coated with polyurethane rubber or resin no-wash needed”.
The company today
Still today, Francesca Vincenzi successfully conducts the activities started 50 years ago, together with her son Luca, her daughter Cristina and a third partner – Massimiliano, who grew up and got qualified inside the pressing department.
“I still remember Cicci’s enthusiasm when he bought his first pantograph” Francesca says proudly.
“He was a person full of inventiveness and initiative, but who always remained modest. As he loved to remember, he started working as an employee, and for him his employees were as children, and this is still a very important aspect of our company’s philosophy. I like thinking that we are like a big family. I think it’s fair to value and reward people’s competences and Massimiliano’s entry in VM’s management is an example. Obviously, as it happens in all families, discussions are not missing, but they are all about productive debates which allow us to grow, to adapt to the market evolution bringing us to be the company we are right now.
Luca, who is very gifted with technics, has grown up studying and learning on books first, and then practicing the job next to his father what learnt on books since he was very young. Now he works as Technical Manager of the Wear-proof Sprayed Polyurethane Coating department. My daughter Cristina represents, on the contrary, the feminine soul of the company who continues my job. It has been a constant growth for her as well and now she works as Sales Manager. Finally Massimiliano, who is with us since 1988, started as employee showing capacity and personality. As time passed by, his knowledges mature. Since 2006 he is with me in the company management team, and now he works as Technical Manager of the Pressing Punches department.
Throughout the years, we have been lucky enough to meet excellent people and I think that the anniversary that we are going to celebrate is an occasion to thank everyone, starting from my partners, my employees and external collaborators, up to my suppliers and customers who have always believed in us and allowed us to do our job with passion, giving the best of us becoming what we are right now: a small company, but well-known and esteemed on the Italian and world ceramic market”.
Looking at the future
Three are the company activities which are carried out in three different facilities: the ceramic punches pressing, the production of polyurethane rubber sheets and the wear-proof sprayed polyurethane coating.
This last specific activity allowed the company to differentiate and to address to markets others than the ceramic one.
“Every new possibility is a challenge that encourages us to give the best” says Cristina. “ In the last years, in particular, we have beenvery busy studying and developing new materials which may be safer both for the operators and for the environment, going in a greener direction. I am personally proud of it: I think this sensitivity towards the environment and our willing of leaving a world as clean as possible to my children, differentiate us from other companies that mainly pay attention to profits. For us, for me, ethics and honesty are essential values. We are extremely lucky to have customers with our same ideas, who appreciate our job and allow us to work keeping our values high. I want to thank everybody, together with my mother, my brother and Massimiliano. We are very happy and satisfied with this achievement”.