Founded in Voghera in 1975, and now in its second generation, Decsa is a historical and future-oriented company highly specialised in the production of open and closed circuit cooling towers and evaporative condensers; a young, dynamic and knowledgeable company that has managed to assert its leadership in a highly competitive market thanks to a strategic vision and an innovative business approach, as Giovanni Luca Ribezzi, the company’s Sales and Marketing Director, states in this lengthy interview.
by Roberta Imbimbo
Dr Ribezzi, with what mission was Decsa born?
The company was born in Voghera in 1975 from the far-sighted idea of Gianluca de Cardenas; a young and passionate entrepreneur who, after gaining significant experience in the world of ventilation, decided to set up a new business highly specialised in the construction of evaporative cooling machines. Over time, and more specifically with the entry into the company of Nicola de Cardenas, the founder’s son and current CEO of the company, this all-Italian excellence has experienced extraordinary growth both in terms of turnover and organisational structure, while remaining firmly rooted in Voghera. In August 2022, Decsa became part of the prestigious Cofinair Group, and the industrial pole resulting from the merger of three large tower manufacturers (Jacir in France, Gohl in Germany and Decsa in Italy) immediately asserted its leadership on a global level, on the strength of greater production diver-sification, a broader skills base and a de-cisely more solid commercial structure. Of the three Group companies, however, Decsa is the one with the greatest vocation for export: its cooling solutions – available in more than one model and more than one power to meet the most specific needs of each individual customer – are today well known and appreciated both on the domestic and international markets, especially in the USA, Mexico and Asia. In recent years, over 8,000 Decsa-branded cooling towers have been sold in over 100 countries.
What peculiarities distinguish you from other market players?
We are very different and innovative compared to our direct competitors. We are just one step away from an important milestone – next year we will celebrate our first 50 years of existence – and we have imposed ourselves in a highly competitive market dominated by numerous well-structured players, thanks to a strategic vision, an innovative business approach aimed at customer centrality (hence the choice to offer customisable solutions, tailor-made in an almost artisanal manner according to individual requests), highly specialised know-how, and many years of design and application experience gained by a multidisciplinary team of 40 qualified and motivated professionals. Our core business – the industrial production of evaporative towers – allows us to offer certified, high quality solutions that perfectly meet the needs of the HVAC and industrial refrigeration market. In addition to the wide range of customisable products offered (think for example of the possibility of developing cooling towers with on-board regulation), Decsa is today highly appreciated in Italy and around the world also for other activities with high added value, such as preventive maintenance, which, if carried out constantly, allows us to preserve the efficiency, safety and longevity of cooling towers and evaporative condensers, regardless of brand and model (we therefore also work on machines of other brands). The fact that we have our technical department, R&D department, marketing, production, sales and after-sales in the same plant gives us a clear advantage over large American multinationals which, on the contrary, have much more cumbersome and elephantine organisations.
Let us dwell on this point for a moment. Industry today is constantly looking for ways to increase the production efficiency of its plants. In this operational context, how important is it to be able to offer a predictive maintenance service?
Very much! Predictive maintenance and reactive mmaintenance are fundamental activities in industrial environments as they are the key to preventing problems and failures, improving plant productivity and reducing downtime to a minimum. No one can therefore dispute the need for an effective maintenance regime. Today, thanks to a qualified in-house staff, Decsa is absolutely capable of providing rapid and certain answers, keeping production processes under control, ensuring high performance, service continuity and, more generally, improving the overall production efficiency of its customers’ cooling towers.
Many goals have been achieved to date. Future goals?
To continue to grow in the domestic market by increasing our market share. The fact that we have joined a multinational Group will also allow us to overcome increasingly ambitious challenges not only in Italy but also abroad, in markets that have not yet been explored, always having at heart the maximisation of customer satisfaction, which has always been our priority objective!
For more info (https://www.decsasrl.com)
