Robbra in our appliance forums noticed an article about Antonio Merloni yesterday from the Italian CasaClima website about the future of the company. And we all thought this was a company long gone but a tangled web is left behind.
Please bear with us in this articel and forgive any small errors as we have had to translate from Italian to English and then make sense of it all.
It appears that two offers have been submitted for the purchase of Antoninio Merloni spa. After months in which he speaks of the challenge Iran-China, Iran yesterday, the MMD General Trading LIC and the Chinese Nanchang Zerowatt have the actual will officially take over the facilities in Umbria and Marche.
It is reported that this is a complete change from what was happening that saw the proposal as the only alternative possible after the purchase of the holding company, Tecnogas, last year.
The deal however appears to be coming under scrutiny from the President of the Regional Council of Umbria Catiuscia Marini and by the Regional Economic Development Gianluca Rossi, who seems determined to ensure continuity and maintain current production levels employment in the area.
The first tender to purchase of Merloni, excluding the autonomous branch of the Ariston Thermo Group, dates back to February 2009, with repeated postponements due to lack of bids or proposals lacking the A. Merloni was kept breathing as a company until October 14, 2008 by Italian laws that allowed the company to be kind of held in stasis.
The current feeding frenzy over Merloni (or bits of it) appears to have started started last July with the acquisition of AM & Cylinder Tanks, which comprises part of the GI & E. Holding the family Ghergo of Osimo.
Subsequently, the company incorporated in Iran Entekhab (controlled by MMD, which has also recently acquired the brand Daewoo, then the deal all fell through), in recent months has incorporated the Tecnogas of Reggio Emilia, a former branch of A. Merloni.
Is there a future for production?
The proposals on the table are reported not to be good news for the economic future of the Italian regions affected and probably why there appears to be political resistance to the sell offs as proposed.
MMD would point to launch an upmarket household range, with the redeployment of existing staff by 50% Merloni, and the outsourcing of some activities. For “redeloyment” awe assume redundant is actually meant.
Nanchang ZeroWatt Electronics Group, China’s state-owned appliance company, headquartered in Nanchang would rather make one of two plants in the research center of Fabriano and turn the other production sites in the Antonio Merloni electronics outlets. According to what is known of the plan, the workers of the three plants would be reabsorbed to 70% over three years. The remaining 30%, largely specialized technical personnel would receive incentives to create their own small companies.
To get to the bottom of the offers will probably take weeks so we have a long way to go before we know how this story actually (finally) ends. But, as stated by commissioner Rossi, who points out that it will be important to know the detailed business plan and employment plan, “only then can we evaluate what they want to do in Umbria and the Marche site “.