international
construction
september 2014
EQUIPMENT
Pilosio
Having struggled tomake it through the global
financial crisis, Italian formworkmaker Pilosio has
been reinvented by CEO
DarioRoustayan
as a
high-growth companywith ambitious international
plans.
Chris Sleight
reports.
whowas taskedwith rescuing the
company and turning it around.
“When I arrived I found a
company that was very near to
bankruptcy, because it concentrated
on the Italianmarket and selling
todealers, the assets I found
were awide range of products
manufactured to a highquality.
“We hadproducts that could
competewith the big guys. Sowe
had toput that togetherwith a
businessmodel to transform the
companymore into an engineering
company.We had to create a
reputation as a solutionprovider for
complex projects.
“After sixmonths it was clear that
we had to shift in three directions.
Onewas geographically, one
was tomore complex projects,
and the otherwas to a different
type of customers, towards big
construction companies,” he said.
And this approachhas not only
brought the company back from
the brink, but driven impressive
growth at a timewhenmarkets
around theworldhave been
lacklustre. “Fromwhen I came in
to today, we have grown30%per
year every year.We have come to
a point where there is a need for
more resources tobecome a global
player.We have the competence,
people and organisation tobe a real
competitor in some of themarkets.
“We have a history of 50 years
from one point of view, but from
anotherwe are a start-up.We are
going to themarket withpeople
whohave ability and competence,
but there is a fresh energy there,”
saidMrRoustayan.
And some of the successes Pilosio
has had along theway have been
remarkable. Its biggest single
order todate came last yearwhen
it won the contract to supply
formwork and scaffolding for
theHolyMeccaCity expansion
project, inSaudi Arabia.This
enormous schemewill see the
mosque’s floor area increasedby
100,000m
2
to465,000m
2
to allow
it to accommodate 1.2million
pilgrims per year.
But asMrRoustayan explained,
therewas a lot of time spent
putting in the groundworkwith
its local dealer, ArabianRoots
Scaffolding&Formwork, and
local contractors before sealing this
monumental deal.
“Wewere frank and straight-
forwardwith our customers,”
he told
iC
. “We saidwe didn’t
want toburn ourselves, sowe
startedwith smaller projects like
the parking structure at Jeddah
Airport. But it was still different to
what we haddone before because
the engineeringwasmuchmore
complex thanwewere used to.
“The experiencewe gainedwith
those smaller projects gave us the
confidence todomore complex
things. But themore complex
schemes brought the demand for a
completelydifferent structure inside
our company.Wewere shifting
fromproducts toprojects and
projectmanagement.The heart of
our business is projects andproject
management and the profitability
of the company depends on that.”
Relationships
Othermajor formwork companies
also offer engineering anddesign
services, a factMrRoustayan
acknowledges.However, he said
the company’s approach todoing
businesswent deeper than that.
“From one point of view, this
business is about competence.
If you are sitting in front of the
projectmanager on a big scheme,
hewill knowwithin30minutes
whether you knowwhat you’re
talking about.
“But after that comes the
relationship, andwe can offer
something different from the
others. I believe inbeing customer-
centric.We have tounderstand
what their needs are. If you keep
that as the central objective, then
your approach, theway youdeal
with customers and your internal
processeswill be different, because
your focus is always there,” saidMr
Roustayan.
This year could see a new
chapter opening inPilosio’s
history following the acquisition
of a controlling stake in the
company by private equity firm
ColumnaCapital from loader crane
manufacturer PMGroup.The deal
comes following the acquisition of
the heavily indebtedPMGroupby
US cranemanufacturerManitex
International and according toMr
Roustayan this shouldmeanmore
funds are available for Pilosio’s
expansionplans.
“The deal withColumnaCapital
willmean an injection of capital,”
he said. “More than that they have
The 50-year old
Pilosio CEODario Roustayan.
P
ilosio is perhaps not the
first name that springs to
mindwhen it comes to
formwork companies.Most of the
giants of the industry are based in
theGermanic countries andmake
a point of having a big and visible
presence at exhibitions likeBauma.
Yet theUdine, Italy-based
company has a long history in the
industry, having been founded in
1961by the Pilosiobrothers. For
most of its history, Pilosio focussed
on its domesticmarket, but this
started tounravel post-2008
when the slowdown in Italian
construction activity in thewake of
the global recession threatened to
bring the company to its knees.
But in2010 came the
appointment ofDarioRoustayan,
54
