Interview with Sandrino Bertini, President of Plados Telma

From 1991 to the present day, there is the entire history of the company in between. If you look back, is there an episode that has marked the directionone of Plados Telma?

Over the 30 years of the group's existence, there have been several significant moments that have influenced the company's path. The way the world interacts and operates has changed a lot over the 30 years of activity and I believe that the company has been able to meet the new challenges of the market, innovating continuously from a technological and digital point of view, investing and focusing on the territory in terms of human resources and supply chain.
The opportunity and the decisione to involve his sons in the company I believe has had a decisive impact on the development of a dynamic company capable of responding quickly to the challenges of the industry.

A production plant, a plant dedicated to the processingone of raw materials and the research and development laboratory, both in the Marche region. What is the relationshipone that ties Plados Telma to the Marche region and how has the company contributed to the growth of the area?

The Plados Telma Group's link with the territory is a very strong one. The Group's main activities are located in the province of Macerata, in the municipalities of Montecassiano and Montelupone.
The Group has drawn from the territory the human resources necessary for its development, and the important affirmationone in the various international markets has certainly contributed to local employmentone and the growth of the territory. The Montelupone plant has an efficient laboratory, equipped with sophisticated instruments, where our team of researchers continuously studies innovative composite materials, often with the collaboration of the Chemistry Department of the University of Camerino and other institutes in the Marche region.
To give a concrete example, our company is one of the major financiers of Marlic, an applied research laboratory for innovative and sustainable materials, which is based at the University of Camerino and will become a research and innovation hub for all companies in the Marche region and beyond.

The international ARIAPURA patent and numerous research projects on environmental issues show how the company works in a sustainability direction of improving the impact of production processes. When did you start on this path?

For about a decade now, we have been certified as an innovative SME, which certifies that the company invests at least 3% of its turnover in research, development and innovation, and we are well above this threshold. A large part of our investment is in sustainability and the creation of products that can improve people's lives.
Ariapura, patented in 2012, is a tangible example of this. It is a sink that has special properties that help reduce pollution in the kitchen environment and exerts an antibacterial azione on the entire surface of the sink, thanks to an innovative material with titanium dioxide additive.
Also about ten years ago, we created an internal division, constantly engaged in research and innovation of products and processes, which gave birth a few years ago to the Green Sinks project with the aim of creating a range of eco-sustainable composite sinks made entirely of recycled materials, quartz and acrylic resin. This project, which is based on an essential theme for the future of any company, is constantly evolving and improving.

What are the company's immediate objectives?

The investment programme that the company will carry out over the next three years is strongly oriented towards three key aspects: strengthening the internationalisation process of the group, which already exports 55% of its turnover to 60 countries, continuing the process of digital innovation and industrial automation, and decisively focusing on product innovation with green materials and processes through new technologies with a low environmental and energy impact.