Family company to global giant: SCM Group, 70 years on
Above: SCM Group's new Headquarters in Rimini, Italy
SCM Group is a global leader in technologies for machining a wide range of materials and industrial components for a wide range of product sectors, from furniture to construction, automotive to aerospace, and yachting to plastic machining.
There are three large highly specialised production centres in Italy, with a turnover in excess of 750 million Euro, with 4,000 employees and a direct presence in all five continents.
70 years ago
In 1952, SCM Group's first woodworking machine was produced in Rimini, Italy as was its mission to offer the widest range of woodworking solutions at international level. The company has been led from the outset by two families, dating back to 1935, when Nicola Gemmani and Lanfranco Aureli, experts in mechanics and foundry work, started working together.
Giuseppe Gemmani, designer of L'Invincibile with Lanfranco Aureli.
The first woodworking machine, L'Invincibile, was designed by the engineer, Giuseppe Gemmani, Nicola's son. In the eyes of the founders it had to be special, much simpler and more practical, and it did manage to meet the needs of a market in the throes of a building boom and capable of making every kind of furniture.
SCM quickly created a range of woodworking machines that paved the way to conquering all global markets. In the 1960s, Adriano and Alfredo Aureli, Lanfranco's children, joined the founders. Together with Giuseppe Gemmani they led and expanded the company even further with the opening of directly controlled branches across the globe.
Company car sporting L'Invincibile trademark in Paris, 1960.
L'Invincibile, in front of the Vatican, 1969.
Systems and brands
In 1976, SCM developed the first machining centres and systems for solid wood windows and doors. In the mid-80s, they started acquiring well-known brands in different woodworking environments that would consolidate the company's global leadership: Mahros for automation systems (1984), Minimax for woodworking (1985) and at the end of the 80s, Gabbiani, DMC and Morbidelli, leaders respectively in sizing, sanding and CNC panel machining centres.
In 1992, the Routech brand, that marked the entry of SCM into the timber construction industry, and Stefani, an international pillar in edgebanding, were absorbed into the Group. In the years that followed, thanks to the development of other leading technologies and other acquisitions (Superfici in 2004, CPC and Sergiani in 2006, Celaschi in 2007), the Group further expanded its range to cover all the production requirements in the industry.
SCM factory, Italy, 1960
Celebrating history
SCM proudly celebrates this prestigious 70-year goal of accompanying the customer through each of the processes linked to the world of panels, solid wood, timber construction and woodworking. Luigi De Vito, Scm Division Director and Group General Manager has no doubts about their main objectives: "We aim to be even closer to our customers with highly personalised solutions, tailored to suit their specific requirements".
SCM is taking a further step in that direction to guarantee even more direct contact, from consulting and sales to after sales. De Vito continues: "To us, this means offering continuous and more valid support to our customers; fully understanding and anticipating what they really need, as well as providing even more pro-active recommendations".
In order to achieve this, SCM is investing in the skills of its global team, on the technical, sales and after sales side, and the Group's training Campus centre is playing a key role in this. Simultaneously, the Group is upping its digital transformation process on two levels: internally, renewing organisational and international models with the customer throughout the customer's journey, and at a level of the product and services offered "to be even closer to their business needs and jointly study the best strategy for smart manufacturing".
For SCM, all this translates into digital and connected technologies designed for more efficient, sustainable factories; IoT systems that allow the customer to preserve and enhance their technologies throughout the entire life cycle; tools, such as the new My SCM portal, enabling a vast range of services to view, gather and analyse all the information on production performance in real time; a Service team that can deal more simply and effectively with cases, providing faster answers and "how to" solutions to guide customers in a knowledge sharing logic.
The research and development investments are another pillar: "Not only do we set aside 7% of the Group's annual turnover for R&D - continues De Vito - but we can also rely on an Innovation team with multi-disciplinary skills that allow us to have an open, forward-thinking approach that goes beyond the specific applications of our sectors, once again to the full advantage of the customer".
The investment plan places sustainability in first place both for internal processes as well as products and services, "to offer the customer solutions that reduce the space occupied in the factory, machining times and margins of error, and keep down costs linked to energy consumption and waste of resources and material".
In 70 years, SCM has managed to establish an increasingly more direct and capillary presence internationally. How do you keep a global team united? Once again, De Vito is in no doubt: "With a very strong team spirit; the same one that allows us to continue along our growth path with a convergence of objectives that is not automatic, even in the most difficult times as has been the case in recent years during the pandemic. The centrality of the customer and a human as well as smart approach, are the values that guide us in our daily work in the industrial plants in Italy and the branches abroad. As well as this, we would like to continue to be open to collaboration and partnerships in every field (research, information technology, training, sales support, technical support, etc.) keeping customer value as our key goal".
Stability, internationalisation, innovation and people: the values that have always been a part of SCM Group, as much today as in the past.