How to start again after the flood in Fornace Zarattini here are the stories of two local companies that experienced and managed the emergency and the subsequent restart in a different way.
Maurizio Minghelli, CEO of Astim, a company active in the high-tech defense systems sector, talks about how 2023 went better than expected and that the company was ‘only’ slowed down by the flood as the numbers confirm, starting from the 2023 preliminary balance sheet which shows a positive surplus from operational and financial management of 497 thousand euros. Minghelli, when asked how they were doing a year ago, replies: “I would say very badly because on May 15th we already knew that we would go under water.” The CEO of the Fornace company continues: «We had the advantage of having a mindset that over the years has developed in the military market and we approached emergencies by setting up a working group capable of planning emergencies and carrying out operations more suitable choices. It was a real crisis unit with 10-12 people who followed it until October, who assessed what was happening. Predicting the trend of the water flows the day before, we began to carry all the materials we could upstairs, trying to save what could be saved. Unfortunately the warehouses were full of equipment, systems and goods to be delivered to customers which we were unable to move.”
The water reached the company headquarters on the night of May 18, Minghelli continues: «Reaching 75-80 cm, we saw the water rise from the cameras until it reached the power sockets and the light went out. . When we managed to enter to see the situation it was dramatic: the entire ground floor was flooded with floating materials, but already the day after the flood we had signed contracts with the companies that were supposed to sanitize and renovate the company. We had to throw away everything that was under a meter high, including the plasterboard walls. We immediately began to think about the restart, about how many employees had remained involved in their private lives by doing ad hoc shifts: 10% of the staff were given the opportunity to give priority to their home and the damage suffered. We estimated that in ten days the water would go away and we tried to recover a minimum of operational normality. A colleague from Confindustria rented us a warehouse but it took us 20 days to set it up and be able to start again.”
The progress of the war in Ukraine has also worsened the situation, Minghelli continues: «It has damaged us greatly, some American suppliers were in fact seized by the US Government and only returned to work with us between February and March of this year. So the material that we had to deliver to our customers between July and August 2023 was only delivered today.” Thanks to the promptness of the interventions, Astim’s infrastructure was operational as early as November, continues the CEO: «Today we can say that we are back to 100% without having a market loss, but only a slowdown». The problem remains the compensation, Minghelli concludes bitterly: «We have estimated damages of around 1 and a half million euros, between those from the flood and those from the lack of production: the Government funds are there but the problem for SMEs is that they have inaccessible rules. Just as it is difficult to quantify indirect damage: an earthquake completely destroys a factory, while a flood creates damage to production lines, systems and lost production. The compensation for indirect damages is inaccessible due to the way they are conceived.”
SIMATICA: « IMPOSSIBLE REFRESHMENTS »
Massimo Fortini of Simatica, who deals with IT and assistance services, is disheartened after a year: «We are among the companies hit hardest, we found ourselves in great difficulty and even today we have not returned to 100%, we hope to be fully operational this summer. We faced two sets of problems: continuing to work despite everything and redoing what had been destroyed. For the first point we huddled together and squeezed together on the first floor of the company, with the ground floor unusable. But the biggest difficulty was finding companies for the reconstruction: all the local workforce was busy.”
Fortini had not fully assessed the risk of flooding: «When they had us evacuated at 1.30pm that day we had not assessed such a great risk: it was a sunny day, I was the last to go out and as a precaution I placed the computer. When I saw the water rising live from the cameras in the evening, I felt like I was dying.”
The water reached 80 cm, and only after 4 days was Fortini able to return: «There were still 10-15 cm of water, as soon as Enel gave us the power back we started working. It was very important at that moment not to feel alone, volunteers came from all over Italy, many young people who helped us throw away tons of stuff, desks, drawers, computers, plasterboard.”
The reconstruction, due to the commitments of local companies, had to wait until March 2024: «Despite having booked them a year ago, only this week will we return to work on the ground floor too. We had 160 thousand euros in damages and we had to ask for a loan of 150 thousand euros from the bank which fortunately granted it to us quickly, but they must be repaid of course. Funds from the institutions have not been seen at the moment except for the ‘cookie’ of the Chamber of Commerce of 2,000 euros. Many applications for compensation in the Region are rejected because they are incomplete or do not meet the requirements. Let’s hope we can get them.”
