Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/241540
MY STORY O On January 1, 1964, at the age of 25, I established in England my first company in the spare parts industry: Equipment Spare Parts Limited (ESP). I had just completed my business studies, having attended college in the evenings after a full working day for a company trading used earthmoving equipment. The owner of the company, who was my mentor for over 25 years, did not want to become involved in the supply of spare parts, despite the interest of customers, who needed parts for the repair of the machines they purchased from him. I requested that we establish a separate business, specialising in supplying spare parts to his customers and to others we would find with time. He agreed, and consequently Equipment Spare Parts Limited was created. I invested all my savings at that time - $1,500 - which he matched From a small office in Victoria Street, London, ESP started trading. Its activities were limited to dealing in replacement and surplus spare parts for Caterpillar. At the time suppliers and customers were very few. In early 1967, I received a copy of a large order from a German export house stating that they needed to buy all the Caterpillar parts listed. I managed to secure the order by requesting time to travel and purchase all the items that I found. The customer agreed. My first business trip began with my arrival at the Milan Airport, where I rented a small Fiat 500 and travelled 1400 kilometres, south to Naples and back. On the way, I stopped in every industrial town to enquire whether spare parts were made or could be found there. I managed to locate suppliers of bronze bushings for undercarriage rollers and floating seal groups, but not much else. 34 Quite by coincidence I came across three companies specialising in selling surplus Caterpillar parts which they had purchased from American military bases in Europe after World War II. These companies were selling the parts by OEM part numbers in US$ at prices half those of the OEM list. One of these companies, Rimafer, was based in Modena. Rimafer was managed by the late Romano Soli for his brother-in law. During his employment at Rimafer he gained knowledge of which parts were frequently requested by customers. He then concluded that there was an opportunity for establishing a business committed to trading in replacement parts utilising reverse engineering methods. Romano left Rimafer, married the secretary of the company, and together they started their own replacement parts company, then known as Tractoricambi. This was, in fact, the very beginning of the nonundercarriage replacement spare parts business in Italy, which over the years has become a very prominent industry, providing a livelihood to many of us worldwide. I then decided that "if you can't beat them, join them". In 1969 I moved to Italy, without knowing a word of Italian. I established my first Italian base under the name of ESP Italiana. It was a joint venture partnership with a local foundry that was already involved in the spare parts business having a small workshop and distribution company specialising in parts for Fiat tractors. We added to their activity a limited range of Caterpillar components and began producing, trading and selling Fiat and Caterpillar parts in Italy and for export. Augusto Bortolomasi, then the accountant of the foundry, was appointed to run the joint venture. He remained active in the spare parts IDA UNIVERSAL January-February 2014