Daniele De Rossi

What has your path been at ReeR?
I joined the sales team over 30 years ago. Initially I was only in charge of the Piedmont area, then I started to follow other regions with the mediation of agencies. Now I take care of the entire Italian market, coordinating the activities of three area managers.

How have you seen the company evolve over the years?
The evolution started in 1991 with the acquisition by the current owners, the Scaravelli family. But it is mainly in the last ten years that I have witnessed an exponential growth of ReeR. Previously present only in the optoelectronic barrier market, about 13 years ago we started to market safety controllers as well, which has significantly expanded the customer base. And we are growing again, also thanks to new production lines for RFID controllers. We are very optimistic in this respect.

How have you seen the Italian market evolve during this time?
The market has grown a lot, even going through difficult times like the 2009 crisis and the last two years of pandemic. ReeR has always tried to offer something that our competitors were unable to provide, and it has succeeded. ReeR has grown hand in hand with the many Italian companies that have been successful nationally and internationally. Our strength has always been to be able to fully perceive the needs of the market, firstly the domestic market and then, thanks also to the internationalisation of many Italian companies, the foreign market where we are now present with offices in several countries. The fact that we are present abroad also helps us on the domestic market, because in the future many Italian companies want to expand into Asian or US markets, for example, where we are also present.

How do you guard the Italian market against competition?
Italian companies know us well and recognise us as a leader in the sector. One might think that it is only a question of geographical proximity to the customer that favours us. But that is not the case: we offer first and foremost product and service quality, attention to customer relations at every stage of the relationship, before or after the sale. And we are a manufacturer that, in addition to the quality of its devices, is also able to provide the most appropriate solution tailored to customers’ needs. And this is a great strength of ours.

What challenges has the pandemic thrown at ReeR, specifically with regard to your role in the company? 
The premise is that the pandemic certainly threw everyone off balance. We immediately moved to identify which sectors were the least affected by the lockdowns and limitations imposed by the health emergency in order to be able to give continuity to our production and sales activities. The pandemic years were not easy, but we managed to never stop. And they were also years in which I saw the company being closer than ever to its employees. And that was very very important and commendable.

Now that we are out of it, how do you foresee the market demand evolving over the next three to five years?
The market for security devices will certainly follow the dynamics of the sectors in which our customers are present. And demand will grow especially on the foreign front, where we have been expanding in recent years with the aim of having an increasingly widespread attendance. This does not detract from the fact that we will continue to work to consolidate our leadership in the domestic market by eroding market share from our competitors thanks to increasingly advanced, high-performance, and high-quality products. There will also be new products that will contribute to growth.

In which regions are there more chances for growth and for which applications and devices?
It would be all too easy to answer Emilia Romagna, a region that already contributes a great deal of value to our turnover. But we are also aiming and will aim very much at Lombardy, because it has great growth potential for what we offer. Certainly the Triveneto region can still express potential as well. In the last four years, then, we have also performed very well in Tuscany. I will say more: Tuscany was the region that grew the most for us in terms of turnover, even during the pandemic period. Finally, it is impossible not to mention Piedmont, even though the automotive sector has declined over the last 10 years and the security sector has been affected.

What are the specificities of the Italian market, if any, compared to foreign markets?
The Italian market is one that we have built up over time with great commitment and of which we are now reaping the benefits. We were born in 1959 and have been working with foreign countries for ‘only’ 15 years. The biggest difference I see is probably this: the fact that in Italy we are present without intermediaries while in several foreign markets, where we do not have a direct attendance, we rely on local distributors.

Is made in Italy a value in this sector?
Let’s say that in the more recent past, we could say in the last three years, several of our foreign competitors have favoured their domestic markets. And this has had an impact on Italian companies. The fact that ReeR is Italian, in light also of these dynamics, has acquired a value. So many companies have revalued and are revaluing Italian-made products, also in terms of security devices and technologies. And ours is an Italian product, which is therefore more attractive than ever today even on the domestic market. That’s not all: when the customer comes to us for any need, he has the manufacturers of the device as his interlocutors; he can speak with a technical director, an engineer, with the person who conceived and designed the solution, and with the person who can best adapt it to his needs. And that is undoubtedly a great value.

How much of the increase in turnover in the near future will be based on acquiring new customers and how much on retaining current ones?
Existing customers are an important and fundamental resource that cannot be put on the back burner. But growth cannot fail to come through the acquisition of new customers. That is out of the question.

What are your goals for the domestic market in the short and medium term?
Certainly the goal is to erode as much market share as possible from our competitors. We will do this with the professionalism that has always distinguished us, but also with the energy accumulated over the last two years in which the market has been very slowed down by the pandemic. We will, as always, rely on an approach that focuses not only on the quality and goodness of our products and services but also on the human aspect of sales, meeting potential customers as we always did before the pandemic. We are very determined in this goal of ours, and the availability of new products will encourage and confirm us even more in our growth intentions.