In the far northeast of Italy, Luisa and Claudio Citossi run their family enterprise Aussafer Due. A freehand sketch is all that is required for the company to create a finished, neatly packaged sheet metal part. This complete service is valued not only by customers in Italy, but also by those as far away as China or South Africa.

Text: Matthias Abplanalp Photos: Marco Garfalo

Giving form to customer wishes

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“Dimmi veloce,” Claudio Citossi says, speaking into his cell phone. “Tell me briefly what you need.” The telephone

call is short, the next one soon follows. The energy that Claudio Citossi exudes also pervades the facto-ry floor of the company he runs: a business that today employs around 150 people. “We simply have a different mentality to everyone else,” he says. “We work six days a week and hardly ever go on vacation.” By “we” he means the people of Friuli, a region sandwiched between the Alps and the Adriatic coast, in the far northeast of Italy. It is a place where family and work are closely inter-twined, and this is no less true for Aussafer Due, the Citossi family company.

24/7Aussafer Due is located in the “Zona Industriale Aussa Corno” a vast industrial zone between Venice and Trieste, the capital of Friuli. Friuli did not escape

Quality without compromise: Aussafer Due closely scrutinizes cut parts to ensure they are within the tolerances required by the customer.

the effects of the economic crisis that hit Italy in 2008. This is what makes Claudio Citossi’s next statement all the more remarkable. He says that Aussafer’s turnover has been increasing steadily since 2008. A glance from the office building into the factory hall confirms this: It is a hive of constant activity, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In this economic situation, Aussafer – a leader in metalworking – has defied the crisis by investing in new technologies and employee training, as well as by looking at its strategy and organization. In an environment where competition is relentless, and being faster than foreign and domestic competi-tors is essential, Aussafer’s strategy takes a two-pillar approach of penetrating new market niches, and offering its clients an evermore com-plete service. In contrast, Aussafer does not compete on cost. Competition in the low-priced segment has increased since the economic crisis: “This is not

AUSSAFER DUE ITALY

Aussafer took its first step into fiber laser technology in 2013. The production hall has since become home to four BySprint Fibers – a fifth will follow in mid-December.

After cutting and bending, parts are neatly packed for shipping that can be as far afield as China or South Africa (top). Sheet metal is stacked in a huge warehouse in preparation for cutting and bending (bottom).

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about selling at everlower prices,” Claudio Citossi emphasizes, “but about offering a 360-degree ser-vice.” In other words, from design through industri-alization and production, and followed up by impeccable after sales service. Aussafer does not want to be the cheapest vendor; it wants to be the best.

Entering the fiber laser eraAnd it is not just the quality of their cut and bent parts that sets the best vendors apart from the rest: Aussafer pays particular attention to clean energy and optimized energy consumption. Fifty percent of its electricity is provided by an extensive photo-voltaic system on the factory roof – impressive in itself. However, the company’s electric consump-tion is also falling because fiber laser cutting sys-tems consume significantly less power than their CO2 equivalents. In 2013, Aussafer entered the era of fiber laser technology with the purchase of two BySprint Fibers. A third and fourth followed in April and September 2014, and it is planned for a fifth to enter service in December. This is not the first time Bystronic has accompanied Aussafer on its explora-tion of new technologies, (see box on page 13).

AUSSAFER DUE ITALY

Collaboration with its partners has always been important for Aussafer, and Bystronic is a strategic partner. It supports the company in decisions regarding investment in laser cutting systems, as well as with proposals and solutions aimed at its production cycle, client base and target markets. Perhaps this is why, in a period of rapid technologi-cal evolution, Claudio Citossi has been able to con-tinue challenging his competitors for the last 24 years. “From the beginning, our relationship with Bystronic has been based on fairness,” he says. Over the years, the partnership has seen Aussafer acquire 35 laser cutting machines from Bystronic – none of the company’s current machines is more than four years old. Throughout this time, Aussafer has remained faithful to its motto: Old machines out, new technologies in.“This approach is the key to our success,” Claudio Citossi explains. “We have always invested in new technologies early on. It has enabled us to keep tapping into new markets.” New markets mean for-eign markets. Even before the economic crisis, Aussafer supplied customers in China and Nepal, and since 2008, it has expanded its export business significantly. Among Aussafer’s new markets are

Aussafer has a tradition of laser cutting: The company has purchased 35 laser cutting machines from Bystronic since 1990.

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India and South Africa – and the coming years will see further expansion. “Export is Aussafer’s future,” Claudio Citossi says. Aussafer proves that manufac-turing in low-wage countries and selling in Europe is not the only recipe for business success; the reverse can be just as effective – focusing not on low prices, but on high quality and excellent service.Because Aussafer’s customers come from all over the world, it doesn’t matter whether the company is based in one of northern Italy’s larger economic centers or not: China is a long way away, regardless of whether your business operates out of Friuli, Turin or Milan. “Our market is so large that it is what you do that counts; not where you do it,” Claudio Citossi says. The Citossi family is proud of the company it has created, and it is proud of the new generation that is just entering the business – Giacomo, Claudio’s son, who is making a contribution to company management. Above all, the family is proud that, despite uncertainty in the wider economy, it has been able to depend upon the consistent growth of its business.

AUSSAFER DUE ITALY

“ It is not about selling at everlower prices, but about offering a 360-degree service.”

Claudio Citossi

Luisa Citossi runs Aussafer Due together with her brother Claudio.

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Pioneers

AUSSAFER DUE ITALY

At the end of the 1980s, Claudio Citossi began

looking for a new field; an innovative industry

that would allow him to expand the family

enterprise, Aussafer Due. He decided that sheet

metal processing offered just this potential.

After analyzing the existing market, he found

that all over Italy, sheet metal was cut using

plasma cutters. However, the Citossi family

didn’t want to do what everyone else did. They

wanted their business to take a pioneering role.

At the same time, the family became aware of

a new technology that was at the forefront of

innovation – laser cutting. This was the begin-

ning of Aussafer’s business relationship with

Bystronic.

Machine without a marketIn 1990, Bystronic was one of the only compa-

nies in the world that sold laser cutting systems.

Aussafer put its trust in the Swiss company

and ordered a Bylas laser cutting machine with

1.5 kilowatts of laser power: “Taking the step

into laser cutting was a big decision for us,”

Claudio Citossi says. “We were a small company

then; the investment was huge.” However, just a

“ Every year, laser technology improved and we were able to constantly expand our market.”

on sheet metal processing and realized that the

laser was the most important technology for

this job. We therefore invested in that technol-

ogy,” Claudio Citossi recalls. “Every year, laser

technology improved and we were able to

constantly expand our market.” The same is now

happening with fiber lasers. As they become

available with increasingly powerful lasers, they

are displacing the CO2 laser cutting machines

in Aussafer’s production halls. Aussafer already

has two 3-kilowatt BySprint Fibers as well as

one with 4 and one with 6 kilowatts; a further

6-kilowatt machine will follow in December. It

will hardly be the last.

www.aussafer.it

year later, this sizable investment didn’t prevent

Aussafer from purchasing a waterjet cutting

machine from Bystronic, as well. Not that there

was even a market for waterjet-cut parts in

Italy at the time – not yet. “We wanted to set

ourselves apart from our competitors,” Claudio

Citossi says. “In those days, waterjet technology

was only considered a means of cutting stone

and glass. Nobody was aware that it was also

possible to cut sheet metal using a waterjet. We

built the market for cutting sheet metal using

waterjet cutting machines.”

From CO2 to fiber laserHowever, within a relatively short period of

time, laser cutting completely displaced water-

jet cutting at Aussafer. “We focused increasingly