Let’s talk briefly about your company’s establishment, how was it founded, how did it look in the beginning, on which expertise base was it founded, and for which reasons was it placed in the area in which it operates?
Mille Miglia Engineering s.r.l. is a relatively new company as it was founded in 1997. Its background was already well structured thanks to a 30-year expertise in pipe works as well as precision mechanical works.

What are the main products or traditional services you may offer on the Market? Which one you think the company is well-known for, which ones were added more recently to your program range?
Our company was founded with the idea of providing machineries and equipments to pipe producers; in particular the company would provide drain mufflers thanks to its experience gained in this same field. This experience allowed the founders to assist the customers with a very competent technical support. Mille Miglia Engineering is known as a leading company in the field of exhaust mufflers, capable to offer any solution whether a simple or a more complex one. Several Customers rely on us also for an analysis of the whole production process, rather than just for single processes which need specific equipment.

Are you prepared to supply customized products, or services? Do you think you are a flexible company, ready to operate “on demand”, or would you rather say your strength relies on quick delivery, yet with special attention to prices?
We started producing standard machineries, and we got to the point of realizing pieces of equipment that are totally customized to meet any of our customers’ need. Mufflers field requires a certain flexibility, continuous updates and efficiency criteria. One of strongholds of Mille Miglia Engineering is indeed the capability to transform our customers requests into new projects.
In your company, what are the activities in which you feel more independent, and those in which you take advantage of external suppliers, or partners?
Our goal has always been to gaining autonomy both on the commercial and the planning point of view. Production-wise, we have decrease the amount of internal mechanical works, in order to create a large and well established external network of services that allow us to face any change in our customer demand. At the same time we strengthen up our assembly sector as well as the technical support offered to customers.

What are the kind of companies you interact with more frequently? What about the typical industrial sectors and size of customers you deal with? Are you also going to approach other market categories?
Exhaust mufflers field takes up to the 80% of our resources; our main customers belong to the large multinationals, and for this reason we are present in any of their branches worldwide. Another large portion of our customer base belongs to middle size enterprises that deal with automobile services. We are opening more and more to other fields, but we believe that automotive in general is still the most profitable for us.

Are you going towards a more specialized offer (if so, in which directions), or are you considering enlarging your range of products or services? Which are the main reasons for this decision within the company at the moment?
Our product range is already quite large, as we can offer more than 100 different machineries, not considering the vast range of calibers, soldering and bending equipments. We started with a working range that was comprised between 30 mm and 70 mm; at the moment we reached a working range between a diameter of 5 mm up to a maximum diameter of 450 mm.

In which sectors of your company you invest more energy, and why? What’s your actual ratio between automation and specialized personnel? Which are the positions you’ll never drop, which the ones you trust most?
At the moment we invest in the commercial aspect, also by being present at various expos. Automation is implemented within the company only as a help tool for the specialized personnel, not as a substitute.
We would never renounce to have planning, which also implies to search for new solutions and the care for our commercial and assistance network.

In your company, what’s the influence of expertise and how much do innovation and research count? What are the instruments to check the quality that put forth to maintain the good name of your brand name?
As we mentioned before, experience and innovation are the most important aspects of our reality. We maintain our fame simply by using our experience and attention when we deal with our customers.

From your point of view, do new emerging markets represent a danger, or an interesting opportunity to grow? Are you present in those areas, do you have or would you like to have any commercial or production partner?
We believe that the emerging markets of South America and Eastern Europe represent an interesting development source for us. Our contacts in these areas are rapidly growing, also as far as commercial partners are concerned. Our Headquarter is still the branch in Nichelino, and we are not going to move part of our business in any other country.
What are the communication instruments you explored, which have produced the best results in your experience, among exhibitions, technical magazines, catalogues, web networking, information seminars, direct promotion, etc.?
Until now, we would say that the participation to international expositions and the advertisements in technical magazines are the tools that helped us the most.

Based on your experience, how would you consider the market’s development? Which difficulties are you meeting, which are your growth anticipations, and which the risks your company as well as your sector in general will have to face in the future?
Automotive market is certainly one of the most flexible, but the large range of our products and their versatility allows us to face easily the ups or downs of the market. At the same time, our company is still expanding, and we are going to grow also in other sectors.

By G. Sofia