STM Establishment
Manufacture of the impact grinding mill and dynamic rotor separators
Our Company, our vision
Ideas are the real nourishment for companies.
An incinerator can’t be stopped, otherwise there could be environmental problems and the human health could be in danger. Nevertheless, malfunctions or accidents can occur.
From his company based in Ternate, each morning Mr. Francesco Marcon “calls” his machines , all over the world, to check if they are working properly and, without moving from his office, he can decide how to act if something is not working. This is only one of the several innovations introduced by STM Impianti, a really special company.
STM is special because it’s one of the four companies in Europe with such innovations: three of them are based in Germany and only Marcon’s one is in Italy.
Marcon, your company is a point of reference in the production of grinding and dry dosing plants of different products used both in ecological and industrial fields. How much does the export affect your turnover?
“Export affects our turnover really a lot; in this moment we export around 50% of the total yearly between Europe and U.S.A.. Our aim is to increase this percentage and that’s why we decided to open a new branch in the U.S.A., called STM MICRON Inc., based in New Jersey”.
Do you think the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), which is being negotiated between U.S.A. and European Union, will make your company growing up even more?
“For sure TTIP can be an advantage from the moment it makes commercial operations between Europe and U.S.A. easier, but I don’t think it can be crucial for a small company. Some fields, such as food, textile, automobiles can take advantage from this partnership. Other fields, such as ours, mechanical, handcrafts, manufacture, won’t perceive this advantage so much.”.
If so, why? Are there news in the draft copy of the partnership, you think may be crucial for your development? [For instance: approval of the production standards, reduction of duties, possibility to enter new markets and having new investors]
“As I already told in my previous answer, I don’t think the TTIP is crucial for our company, which is a small handcrafts entity. It could even be a disadvantage and I explain you why: production standards required by the USA (f.i. CSA-US and UL), as we well know, are different from the European laws and regulations. I don’t think that adjusting our systems to the US regulations has been a problem for us. It’s, on the contrary, a new perspective, a way to improve our skills and a way to train our company. We could understand and easily apply these regulations to our systems, thus being one step ahead if compared with our concurrent, who are not ready for the requests of the American market.”.
You just opened a branch in the United States. Could you tell us which are the main difficulties you encountered?
“First of all I have to underline that the branch we opened in the United States is 100% owned by the Italian company. We did actually encounter several difficulties, among which:
- Employees choice: we decided to hire an Italian employee, who was working in the U.S.A. since a couple of years. He could perfectly speak American English, however, due to some difficulties in obtaining a working visa, we were obliged to choose an American employee.
- Visa: despite our big investment, STM MICRON Inc. director, who is also sole director of STM S.r.l., needs to enter the U.S.A. with a Business visa and the ESTA authorization, which means there are restrictions regarding the staying.
- Choice of the accountant: it has been difficult to find a precise accountant who was able to look after our company, from the moment we had to entrust him the responsibility of the tax burden.
- Banks: there are few Italian banks in the American area and they are seen as “business banks”. It was therefore difficult to open a bank account. We had to turn to an American lawyer, otherwise it had been quite impossible to do it.
- Lawyer: an American lawyer costs really a lot; nevertheless it’s impossible to sign any kind of contract (sale, agency etc.) without turning to a lawyer.
Note: it’s commonly known that the national US “sport” is suing.
- The Italian Trade and Investment Agency, as well as the Chamber of Commerce are not sufficiently prepared to follow small companies going abroad.
STM has more than 400 machines installed worldwide.