30 Jan Mecar in Corriere della Sera
Formula 1 inspired safety systems for trucks.
In 1952 Francesco Ferrajoli, an engineer, succeeded in combining his passion for sports cars with his personal vision of the future. This was during the years of the economic boom and the entrepreneur obtained the rights to distribution of Fiat cars and trucks across the province of Salerno. Fast forward 62 years, and at the helm of this business born of a dream are the three grandsons of the original Ferrajoli, who over the past few years have been working hard to make the vision of their grandfather, and subsequently of their own parents, a reality.
They have been able to create competitive advantage for Ferrajoli & Co., and the company has been specializing more and more in the distribution of industrial and commercial vehicles. With the spin-off of Iveco from Fiat in fact a new company, Mecar, was founded in Nocera Superiore as part of the Ferrajoli group. A dynamic business offering logistics solutions and which finds its strength in teamwork. That is precisely what the three cousins, grandsons of the company’s founder, are: a team. Gianandrea, Francesco and Luigi, each with their own set of specialized skills and with strengths formed through professional experiences outside of the family business have joined the core business of their forefathers, adding a touch of modernity to the whole organization and bringing with them competitive spirit in spades.
It is this spirit which, despite the crisis, characterizes the happy island which is the Salerno area where the headquarters of the business are situated and which has pushed the three cousins to take on new challenges and put Mecar on the path to exponential growth.
The Managing Director of the company, Gianandrea Ferrajoli, studied and worked overseas in the UK, specializing in Private Equity, before returning to Mecar in 2009. “We are symbolic of a high performing and positive South,” he told us. “In fact, despite the period not being exactly booming for any sector, Mecar is preparing the opening of a fourth branch, the third in two years. This creates a network which allows us to cover the whole of the South. Campania, obviously, followed by Basilicata and Calabria with the new branch in Rende, province of Cosenza. We will also be covering the Melfi area in Basilicata. This is the calculated gamble we have decided to take, supporting industry in the area – we have great faith in the opportunities available”.
Although from September this centre of excellence in logistics from the Salerno area will expand its activities into the deep South with the new branch in Rende, it must be said that for years now the industrial vehicles of the Ferrajoli family have been present across Europe. “Our client portfolio covers about 15% of the Italian market. That said, over the past years many of our core clients have been gaining ground on an international scale. The big players that we can count among our clients and who we have been working with now for many years are operative across Europe, with a vision of a single market within which to grow their businesses.
That’s where we come in. ”To the layman it may seem simple, but the work that Mecar does is fundamental to guarantee that the movement of their clients and their goods remains constant”, and it is in ensuring that this guarantee can be made that the three Ferrajoli cousins have pushed the levels of innovation in the company to the top. “You know that warning lights system they use in Formula 1”, explains Gianandrea Ferrajoli, “which tells the mechanics whenever a driver has a problem of any kind? Well we have installed that same system on our vehicles. Once we have supplied a vehicle we of course also look after maintenance and support. We have added this extra technology to our network of affiliated workshops so that they can help our clients wherever they are”.
In other words this is the start of a new era of customer support. For example, if one of the warning lights on any vehicle which has been sold or leased by Mecar begins to flash, signalling a problem, however small, to the driver; an identical warning light will come on at the same time in the offices in Nocera Superiore. The Ferrajoli team then knows which vehicle has a problem and can guide the client to the closest affiliated workshop and resolve the issue from a distance.
“The great thing about working in Mecar is the energy. We are a very young team, with an average age of just 35. People here love their work and put the client first, and seeing the growth of our company over the years, I would say that our clients have shown us that they appreciate this”.