Opportunities & Change

The feedback received revealed much diversity, as well as many shared opinions. For Horst Mayr of Froeling Italia, it is still too early to talk about recovery and “We can see interest and demand for offers, but incoming orders are still scarce,” whereas for Giuseppe Cinefra CFO of AICO-RAVELLI, new opportunities were discovered: “It’s undeniable that the period we have experienced has introduced us to a different kind of sociality. At Ravelli, for example, we immediately adopted smart working for front office activities (orders, shipping, credit and technical assistance), guaranteeing our partner customers a high standard of service and allowing our employees to work from home in complete safety. Technical assistance courses conwere also organised through an online platform. Recovery is underway and retailers are certainly more cautious yet confident.

For Sila Ronchiato of Ronchiato Legna, a good relaunching phase is now giving way to a downturn in orders: “In the month of May, customers showed their interest and desire to start again. End users, in particular, promptly made every effort to book fuel supplies for the next heating season. But after this initial good start, we are already starting to record some slowdowns, which are somewhat anomalous compared to similar summer months in the past. After two years of mild winters, we expect it to be a normally cold season.”

Daniele Rigamonti, CEO of Woodtech Italia, talks about a 15-20% decrease in orders. “Starting with the fact that activities related to the sale of pellets were able to continue even during the lockdown period, since the product is considered an asset of primary importance, we held up during the months of March and April, anticipating by one month what was the pre-season. This enabled us to maintain our turnover fairly well also in May. The difficulties started in the month of June and, in my opinion, will continue until September. With regard to the pellet industry, private individuals have other financial priorities. Purchases will only be made when consumption is necessary. We will be facing difficult months.”

Matteo Pippa of Schmid Italia appears to be waiting: “At this stage, all potential beneficiaries are waiting for the conversion of the Relaunch Decree to law, postponing the decision to purchase a system until after July 18. Consequently, the market is at a standstill. Companies that use boilers are moving their investments to 2021 in order to focus on recovering their losses in 2020.”

Gianni Ragusa, CEO of La Nordica-Extraflame:
“This is certainly a very difficult time for production and, perhaps even more so, for retailers. It is our priority to try and understand our customers’ needs by working with them to find the right solutions for this new situation. I don’t think we require any rash trade policies to encourage dealers to store as much material in-house as possible. I think we need to help retailers with sell-out operations related to the quality of sales.”

Gino Scagnoli, sales director of Laminox stoves, is optimistic, despite the fact that months later there is still no sign of recovery: “Relaunching initially showed weak signs of recovery; only in recent days have we seen an increase in demand.”

Gianni Ragusa comments, “It is very difficult to answer the question because it is just as difficult to understand the mechanism of this new decree. To be honest, I would have been happier if they had perfected the Thermal Account mechanism, which, to date, is the best tool for the biomass industry. Redefining the Thermal Account would have given greater impulse to activities connected with replacing old generators with new generation ones.
The rediscovery of “staying at home” will certainly allow us, from next autumn, to enjoy the benefits of our fireplace or stove. So why not enjoy a high-performance
green product?

Giuseppe Cinefra talks about the provision being rather approximate: “This provision was announced in haste without involving experts in the field.
Nevertheless, we hope that this intervention will have a positive impact on the entire supply chain.”

Sila Ronchiato expresses even greater perplexity: “We currently perceive that the provision is creating many expectations among consumers, but we honestly do not consider it a significant driving force for our industry, at least given the current state of information. In our opinion, the tool that really is an opportunity for users is still the incentive related to the Thermal Account.”

Daniele Rigamonti adds, “The debate on if and how woody biomasses are considered in relation to the Ecobonus scheme is still very open. We must focus on decarbonisation, as required of us by the EU and this means facilitating the installation of pellet boilers and stoves without any restrictions.”

Matteo Pippa, on the other hand, has a very clear opinion of the Superbonus: “It created many expectations, but for sixty days (the technical time for conversion into law) it actually stopped the market.” Horst Mayr of Froeling Italia has an even
more drastic opinion: “If the measures are perfectly tailored to support heat pumps and gas condensing boilers, they leave biomass almost totally excluded. I believe that credit transfer should be eliminated. Currently, this decree is bringing us more damage than help.”

For Giuseppe Cinefra, it is precisely smart working that is one of the solutions for relaunching, with “the use of new work tools made available to retailers to give them increased support in their daily activities: in the mid-term, this will allow us to improve our efficiency in various ways,” whereas for Sila Ronchiato the concept of proximity seems to be successful: “We have tried to support our customers even more, especially those located in the areas most affected by the virus, with customised purchasing solutions. We have given private individuals the option of booking their fuel supply at the pre-seasonal price by fixing home delivery after the end of lockdown.

Furthermore, we have included the option of subscribing to a financing arrangement for purchases. For some months, with a view to corporate diversification, we have been investing in our showroom by adding the marketing of thermal appliances such as stoves, fireplaces and biomass boilers. With this innovative feature, we have complemented all aspects of home heating, using renewable biomass and offering customers an all-round service.”

A greater commitment to sustainability. Daniele Rigamonti talks about it: “We have raised the bar again towards the production of high-quality products with sustainable processes.
We are certainly moving towards a greater focus on distribution logistics in order to try and approach increasingly urgent market demands for the dematerialisation of products in stores, by developing online sales platforms.”

Matteo Pippa of Schmid Italia points out: “Research and improvement are a path that cannot be stopped by a two-month shutdown. We have only slowed down some new products, but biomass is our dayto- day livelihood and we cannot stop.”

Gino Scagnoli, sales director of Laminox, presents concrete examples of eight innovative projects being fully developed, three of which will be available on the market as of September, whereas the others will be available on the market from
January 2021.

“The company has full confidence in market recovery and the relaunching of the Italian economic system, investing in new and important
projects.”

Gianni Ragusa, CEO of La Nordica-Extraflame uses an image to convey an idea of what happened: “On March 9, it was as if a huge blackout had arrived. From that moment onwards, we have restructured our company, making it safe against possible infections, and we have reorganised production to compensate for the very long shutdown that lasted eight weeks.

But not only that. We also had to change – like everyone else – the way we interact with each other by transforming our physical meetings into digital meetings: so, we reorganised our Academy into a Digital-Academy, providing refresher courses (in 5 languages), which, in some cases, involved sessions with more than 200 participants.

Lastly, the feeling that the general situation is still too calm is expressed by Horst Mayr of Froeling Italia: As for office work, we are still working a great deal in Home Office mode, a sign that the company and the market are still moving forward very slowly…”