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02/22/2024
Paolo Merloni tells to La Repubblica the results and the growth strategies of Ariston Thermo
Ariston Thermo, the warm heart of Merloni. “Green energy and research, our heart in an app”
The Executive Chairman Paolo speaks: “We’ve invested 200 million euro in the past three-year period and plan to invest at least the same amount over the next three years. We now need to pause for a year to assimilate the acquisitions made worldwide. But our shopping will soon resume”.
Paolo Merloni is satisfied with the 2016 financial statements of Ariston Thermo, a company present in the thermic comfort sector (89% of the sales income) that involves boilers, heat pumps, water heaters and solar heating systems, besides the burners and components niche markets. “We ended 2016”, commented the company’s Executive Chairman, “with the turnover stable at 1.43 billion Euro, and with all profitability ratios up, including adjusted EBITDA (+2.68%) at 178 million, EBIT (+8.8%), which currently amounts to 9% of the sales income, and net profit with a 3.8% increase which reached 83 million. But 2016 was also the year in which we acquired NTI, the largest company in our sector in Canada and one of the five biggest in the United States. This marks a crucial stage in the internationalisation strategy of a Group that generates 89% of its turnover overseas, nearly 50% of which originating outside of Europe”.
Regarding the objection that the company’s profitability is rising whereas its growth is apparently slackening, Paolo Merloni observes that “Ariston Thermo comes from 7–8 years of growth also thanks to its overseas acquisitions: it is now taking stock and pursuing profitability instead. Currently, besides distributing our products in 150 countries, we have 59 operating companies and 8 representative offices in 36 countries, in addition to 22 plants in 13 different countries. We may not be the world’s largest group in the sector, but we’re definitely the most internationalised. To further underline this profile, for the first time in our history we have chosen a foreign managing director, the Belgian Laurent Jacquemin, who has been working within the Group since 1992”.
In this context, the Executive Chairman of Ariston Thermo cherishes one goal in particular: “Last year 54% of our sales came from products and solutions boasting high energy efficiency or that exploit renewable energy sources. Now our goal is to reach 80% by 2020. Already this year we expect to easily exceed 60%”.
As for the risk that the policies enacted by President Trump, who is no fan of energy saving, might block the sector’s development, Merloni is optimistic: “I don’t believe that the energy efficiency trend will stop, even in the United States. Condensing boilers like ours, which are 20–30% more energy efficient compared to the best traditional boilers, constitute a growth niche in the USA”.
A host of records have dotted the history of Ariston Thermo which, following the acquisition of Indesit Company – founded by Paolo’s uncle, Vittorio Merloni – by Whirlpool, is now the largest Italian-owned company in the Marches region. Even though 89% of its turnover is generated overseas, the 7 plants in Italy – out of a total of 22 – cover a much larger share of the production. However, there’s another record Paolo would gladly relinquish: after the sale of Indesit to Whirlpool and the closure in 2008 of Ardo, a company founded by his uncle Antonio, he’s the only Merloni family member to lead a company with an international dimension.
To understand what exactly occurred to the most important family of the Marches’ industrial scenario, we need to take a step back to 1930, when Aristide Merloni founded Industrie Merloni. Upon his death, in 1971, the business was divided between his three sons: Antonio, who would go on to produce household appliances on a contract basis, Vittorio and Francesco. Vittorio Merloni founded the Merloni Elettrodomestici, while Francesco Merloni, Paolo’s father, founded Merloni Termosanitari. In the mid 1980s the two brothers parted and in 1987, with the listing on the stock exchange of Merloni Elettrodomestici, the cross-holdings at a family holding (Eldo) level became irrelevant.
And now? Ariston is currently the leading brand of Ariston Thermo. It adds to the other brands gradually acquired by the Group, including Chaffoteaux (France), Elco (Switzerland) and Atag (Holland), besides Racold of India and the latest addition, the Canadian company NTI. With regard to the future, Paolo Merloni has no doubts: the company will continue to invest: “Over the past three-year period we’ve invested 200 million euro in innovation and development. And we hope to invest an equal amount, or more if possible, over the next three years”.
Part of the resources invested by Ariston Thermo are directed at energy efficiency, with hybrid solutions combining green technologies – such as heat pumps or solar heating systems – and condensing boilers capable of satisfying peak energy demands. With the remaining resources, the company aims to improve its customer service through recourse to digital technologies. One such example is the app for mobile phones that enables customers to remotely control heating and cooling of their homes. But also systems that enable Ariston’s support service to remotely monitor the performance of thermic comfort systems in homes, solving any faults before they emerge or warning customers of the need for an intervention.
“In the research field”, explained Paolo Merloni, “we will be opening in Agrate Brianza a centre for innovative technologies linked to energy efficiency. We are not striving to improve what we already have, but open new frontiers in the sector. For this reason, we plan to invest 20 million Euro a year over the next three years”. The operation will also require new recruits. In 2016 the company hired 200 people, increasing its workforce from 6,700 to 6,900 people. And the company will continue to recruit in 2017.
Written by Giorgio Lonardi, published on “La Repubblica – Affari e Finanza”, 10th April 2017, p. 46.
Click here to read the online version of the articicle (in Italian).
02/22/2024