Air Tech Italy recently spoke to Metalscreen’ s Edoardo Ricci, Business Unit Leader at the company. Metalscreen is a company whose products are known by most of us but we rarely stand still to understand who produces them, the ceilings above our heads when we walk through airports, retail outlets, train stations and all types of industries. This is where Metalscreen comes in.
Hi Edoardo, can you introduce yourself, your function and your company?
Yes of course. I am Edoardo Ricci, in charge of business development, export sales and strategy, so quite multi-disciplinary.
Metalscreen and its products have been on the market for 40 years, we are one of the leading Italian companies in the production of false metal ceilings and aluminum wall claddings for internal and external purposes. We are widely known for our products, made of premium raw materials and our flexible and fast delivery delays. When it comes to production, we have gone for full automation and lean management which guarantees that we produce just in time to fit best to the client’s needs. To enable this, our production teams are also multi-disciplinary which is quite different than in most companies and which allows us to meet the often tight deadlines.
We have a wide range of products used in different areas of applications like Shopping Malls, Retail, Supermarkets, Hospitals, Car Dealers, Banks, Offices, Railway stations and Airports … meaning that the same products can be applied to several segments.
Finally, our headquarter is located in the north side of Italy, near to Modena. Centrally positioned to deliver products to all customers worldwide.
Can you explain how Metalscreen differentiates? Can you share a few examples of what you do and did?
Edoardo: “Airports have always been an important market for us, this segment has been growing very fast in the last 5 years thanks to large projects in Italy – with all the main airports being a customer of ours – but we have also expanded our footprint internationally supporting airports in Bangladesh, Bosnia, Malta, and many more.
Our wide variety of false ceilings ranging for example from the classic 60×60 tiles to linear panels and open suspended ceilings, are all applicable in every part of the airport. Entrance halls, retail areas, toilets, food courts, kitchens, … their main function is to cover or screen all the technological systems located above our head. Our systems are easy to install, easy to maintain and lightweight so very easy for airports to integrate in a very short timeframe but also to keep maintenance times short.
We have also focused a lot on the creation of new finishings and colors, adding an important esthetical factor: an airport not only looks after the functionality aspects but also looks into visually appealing solutions.
Sustainability and circularity play a key role in your company’s strategy, can you tell us more?
Edoardo: “Our end-to-end production process follows the concept of the circular economy. First of all, for aluminum and steel we only select suppliers that offer premium raw materials consisting of at least 80% content of recycled materials which helps us to meet our sustainability targets. We also collect and sell the production left overs so that these can be used again by the waste collectors to produce new materials as aluminum and metal can continuously be recycled. The circularity aspect is always there, from production to the recuperation of old materials, a process which we adopted early on without losing quality out of sight.
Secondly, we decided to avoid any in-house treatment that may release chemicals or harmful substances in the environment and for this reason, we only purchase aluminum and steel that are already painted.
Furthermore, our water and carbon footprint is extremely low: we don’t use water, gas or fossil fuel in the production process and machinery is only powered by electricity.
All of this, led us to obtain key environmental certifications such as ISO 14001, EPD and LEED mapping and we’re also proud to say that by the end of the year we will publish our first ESG report!
What are for you the (future) key trends in false ceilings and wall claddings?
Edoardo: “In the last ten years the market has fundamentally changed. False ceilings were mainly just something applied at the very end stage of a project to cover technological systems above us without any interest regarding their aesthetic effect. There were only a few standard shapes and colors and there was a massive usage of cheap, unsustainable and harmful materials such as mineral fiber and gypsum board.
Nowadays false ceilings are considered architectural and design products and there is a fast-growing demand for new shapes, finishes and colors, made from sustainable, recyclable and light materials such as aluminum.
Going forward we see a large potential as older ceilings are going to be replaced and architects will include aluminum false ceilings within key projects all over the world.
Even on the external wall claddings side, key decision makers have finally understood the superior technical performances of aluminum, the best material in the world: eco-friendly, light, easy to install and maintain, corrosion and humidity proof, resistant to saltiness and UV rays with a great color durability.
We also see environmental certifications and the focus on eco sustainability becoming mandatory pillars for companies and airports seeking to be market leaders in the upcoming future.
In this context we want to keep on playing a key role thanks to the quality of our products and our professionalism, always trying to seize upcoming market opportunities and trends.
Many thanks Edoardo!