Armo History

Armo was founded in January 1972 as joint stock company, for the trading and the production of
lifting tables and dock levellers.

The name Armo had been chosen by compounding the first two letters of the founding partners’ surnames, Gianpaolo Ardissone and Umberto Motto, 50% owners of the corporate shares. Mr. Ardissone was already in the sector of lifting tables for a long time, having worked at the Pait company in Turin since the early Sixties, where several items, built in Germany for the entire European market, were traded, including the lifting tables.

In the late 60s Pait went through a growth crisis: the turnover’s increase was sudden and unexpected, and led to a liquidity crisis. In order to remedy this situation Pait looked for one or more partners and among them there was Mr. Motto. But, during the negotiating to let new partners join the company, the Italian lira suffered a devaluation with the German mark, with an exchange rate that arise from 150 to 300 lire per mark.

Pait has always had a considerable stock, but the exchange led to a sudden doubling of value: the crisis was over with no need of a corporate renewal. Anyway, it represented the opportunity for Mr. Motto and Mr. Ardissone to know each other and, realizing his capacities and the product’s potential on the market, proposed him the partnership: Armo was officially born.

At first, the company was intended as a trading business, but practically a small industrial production immediately started. The idea was to produce a small part of the traded products so that to enter the market as manufacturers.

The initial production was based on medium and big sized lifting tables (lifting machines) , truck trailers and carriages. Armo first productive settlement is in Borgaro (Turin), nr. 45 Garibaldi Street, with a surface of 1.250 m2.

The development of the early years is sudden and the local soon proved insufficient: after three years the commercial part was transferred to an office in C.so Re Umberto in Turin.
In 1978, considering the results and evaluating the potential of the market, the company moved everything to its new facility in Collegno, Via C. Marchesi n ° 5. The new plant has an area of ​​about 3,200 square meters, but although the size change is considerable, the production capacity, more than doubled, is quickly saturated.

This development also involves significant changes including:

the production of trolleys and trailers is abandoned
the division of the company shares changes, a new minority member enters
Since 1975, Armo has been developing a propensity to work from abroad and from 1980 on at least 25% of turnover is obtained by working with the main CEE countries and beyond. In 1980, the certification of the German TUV for the Armo Ax platform was requested and obtained. This is also to have a quality certification of the product.

Ardissone opens, with a friend, Mr. Bertolotti, a commercial company, Beri s.r.l. in 1984. La Beri markets products that are complementary to those produced by Armo, such as light series platforms.

The Beri obtains excellent profits, mainly due to the fact that the management costs are limited to the maximum. Moreover, always with Bertolotti, and with the sig. Simonetto, Ardissone opens another company in 1985, the B.S.A. s.r.l., with headquarters in None in via Vittime di Bologna 10, which mainly deals with the recovery of the result. The result is the waste of cois sheets to produce metal straps.

In 1985 the market was shaken with the failure of Treppel, the German market leader in the production of platforms. This brings to the Armo new customers, among which the Load System, a company from Genoa, and the German company M.B.W. They commercialized the loading ramps with the Treppel, as well as the platforms, and asked the Armo if it was able to produce them. The same request comes from the French retailer Steiblè. Sure to have an outlet on the market, the Armo decides the production, studying the best models produced in Europe and based mainly on the German model of the Hafa, at that time the one with the highest quality.

At the end of 1985 the first Armo loading ramp was sold. Since 1988 the metal structure of the ramp carpentry is built by B.S.A., which abandons the previous production and works exclusively for the Armo where the product is then assembled, painted, tested and marketed.

In the same period Ardissone enters a company in the Elcap of Leini ‘(To), a metalworking carpentry company.

The Armo has therefore a notable increase by relying on officially external suppliers but considered in all respects as separate departments. At the end of 1988, due to incompatibility of ideas on the future of society, Mr. Motto comes out of the company.

To optimize the internal organization, Armo is evaluated and bought; valid for 01/01/89 for budget purposes, the purchase of Armo s.p.a. by Beri s.r.l., which in turn changes its name and becomes Armo s.r.l. The pantograph platforms are reviewed: this operation laid the foundations for the development of the Arm in the 90s.

With the production and marketing of loading ramps, we realize that the product is received by the user not as a standalone unit, but as a “package”, together with a sectional door and a sealer as a loading point.

The analysis of the market also shows that the relationship with the customer must not only be limited to the sale of the product, but must be able to understand its real needs in order to be able to provide the most appropriate solution.

The idea is therefore that of creating peripheral warehouses, with independent management and owner, able to reduce distances and times on the territory, thus guaranteeing the specialized ability to provide a service. Armo Service was born; those of Verona and Piacenza to cover the territories of Northern Italy, and with the expectation of opening those of Rome and Bari for the Center South.

The idea, however winning, turns out to be still premature for the characteristics of the South European market and the Armo Service do not get the desired results.

The idea of creating decentralized storages, reducing distances and times of supply, turned out to be a real success with regard to Northern Europe countries; in 1994, the first foreign branch of the firm opened: Armo Netherlands.

This decision was supported by several reasons:

• strategically, the Netherlands had a dock levellers super developed market , with three of the major producer
• they were an optimal starting point for the Nordic markets (Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden, Norway), where Armo used to have a small commercial presence
• lira’s devaluation, that made our goods very competitive abroad
• not least, the entrepreneurship and the willing of a young commercial agent of engaging in this field

Armo Netherlands was the Italian equivalent of a s.r.l. and had 2 partners: Armo at 60% and Mr. Ruben Bontekoe at 40%. Since the first year, the business brought profits to budget. For Mr. Bontekoe’s health reasons, even if the firm was still producing profits, the branch was closed in 2003.

In 1996 Armo changed its business name and became a Ltd with an augmentation of the share capital and the entering of new partners. In the same year, was introduced the first robotic soldering process with good results in terms of precision of the semi-finished and of certainty in the correct execution of the work.

Armo was the first company in Europe to adopt the robotic soldering in the production of lifting tables and dock levellers.

Since one of the main characteristics of a small – medium firm must be inevitable balance between flexibility and capability to adapt to new market situations, in 1997 from the ashes of Armo Service arose the ARCHI (Armo closing solutions), specialized in sectional doors’ production in Verona.

In 1999 Archi and Elcap were closed and sold to Armo, which absorbed them. In the same year a new project started, in order to completely renovate the production; this project also estimated the installation of six more robotic systems, that allowed:

• total uniformity and high quality of semi finished and products
• decisive reduction of times and scraps of processing
• increased productivity and cut of the production costs
• total removal of the typical faults resulting from a manual processing on a greater amount of products
• control standards, and more accurate administration and reliability compared to the traditional manufacturing methods
• full quality with no additional costs

This reorganization, which ended in 2001, led Armo to be at the cutting edge in the field and to receive proposals of purchasing from American and German multinationals, but the management decided to pursue independently.

In 2001 the existing separation between Armo and BSA turned out to be unfavorable for both of them. Consequently, they decided to proceed with a merge for incorporation in which BSA was the incorporated, and Armo the acquiring.

This operation led to several advantages; the main ones were:

• reduction of the internal bureaucracy
• reduction of fixed costs
• releasing resources to allocate them to others uses

The company aims to a global approach towards quality and involvement of the entire corporate structure, from the top to the basis (all the corporate levels have to be active part in the process of achievement of the qualitative goals) and transversally (all the business functions are equally involved in the process). We focus with particular attention on the operative staff training so that the technique of
self-control becomes a cornerstone.

The relationships with the customers are based on clearly defined criteria:

• identifying the different typologies of customers
• knowledge and satisfaction of demands and expectations
• ability to ensure the conformity of the realized products
• suitability of the provided service
• maximal flexibility

As for the criteria that rule the relationship between the company and its suppliers, they aim at reach a supplies’ high quality level. For this purpose, we make use of valuation methodologies, suppliers’ homologation and licensing to the supply.

From 2002 the headquarters are moved into the new warehouse in 1, Rosa di Luxemburg Street in Collegno (TO), to support the constant business increase.

In order to simplify Armo productive strength, we can divide it in 5 parts:

• Storage
  It incorporates all the semi- finished that will be then use to make the final products. The semi-finished are series-made, with clear savings on processing costs, stored and then picked up when required. The semi-finished storage is at the basis of Armo manufacturing’s flexibility, since it guarantees the ready availability of any necessary particular.
• Special productions establishment
  It is where “special” Armo products are made. The 30-year expertise in building tailor-made lifting tables reaches its maximal application in this establishment.
• Semi-finished establishment and series production
  It is the place where we have an enormous production capacity: with its 10 robots, it is capable to absorb a considerable amount of work. A robotic installation, repeating cycle after cycle the exact sequence of the operations, ensure that all the items have the same characteristics and that these characteristics are kept constant through the time. Only by the automation of the manufacturing processes it is possible to keep the quality level constant.
• Testing
  It is the place where all Armo products are singularly and with strict procedures tested. The result of the final testing, together with the detailed list of the utilized components, is finally accurately registered on dedicated files that, in the long term, could retrace the exact “identikit” of each machine.
• Storage and shipments
  It covers an area of more than 3.000 m2 covered, the average-storing is 500 dock levellers and 700 hydraulic lifting tables. Thanks to this storage Armo is able to manage with no difficulties at all the unplanned orders and the early deliveries.

In 2004 we had the opportunity to open a new branch abroad, to be more precise in England, and we decided to catch this chance. This is how Armo Uk was then born, based in Telford, close to Birmingham, covers the entire British and Irish market, with a team of young and skilled people, with many years of experience in the logistics sector.

Despite the economic crisis of the last years, the company has always
been developing, demonstrating commitment to quality and service and in 2016 reached its turnover record with a good profitability.

To visit our ARMO UK website please click here.

As previously stated, Armo kept on growing both in Italy and abroad up to 2008, year of the massive world economic crisis.

In 2009 the turnover decreased of more than 20% compared to the previous year. The possible negative tensions were defused by the fact that the firm had partly predicted the arrival of the crisis, and it had been decided to cut some potentially hazardous – from a financial point of view- customers and to reduce the personnel already from the end of 2007.

Armo has been working with the credit insurance from 2002 and with the Cerved Group from 2007 in order to minimize financial risks. This policies – of turnover reduction as long as it is sure and the consequent costs reduction – has been pursued for the following years, that, even if difficult, led Armo solid basis from which re-start.

The resumption of investments, occupation and results has been regarding these last years: in 2015 the company grows of 15% and in 2016 the growth reached the 35%.

Around these last years, also the pass from one generation to the next has taken place: some partners abandoned and the new CEO was elected.

Today Armo is a company with an experienced international vocation, leader on the Italian market and with a wide range of lifting and goods-handling machines and facilities for the industrial logistics.

Armo production is dislocated in two different structures, in None and in Collegno, both in the province of Turin, where it is possible to monitor the entire manufacturing process and guaranteeing this way the qualitative continuity. Each single item is designed and realized to offer high level performances and
effective safety guarantees.

Besides, Armo , strengthened by its 40-years- experience in the field of industrial logistic, from 2012 masterfully entered the civil market with a brand new line of motorized residential sectional doors named “Armonia”, installed with a turnkey basis.

But Armo is not only manufacturing: aiming to a quality service, the firm does not trade just its own products but, taking advantage of its experience and knowledge of the sector, it contributes to satisfy the customers’ needs and to offer a reliable, quick and competent repairing service.

Despite its multiannual experience and presence on the market, and although equipped with an innovative technical office (research and development is an essential part of our work) Armo has not lost its capacity of learning, which is proved by the policy of confronting with the concurrence, with no fear of making changes whenever they could make our products safer or more competitive.