Glem Gas: Italian specialists of Cooking

 With fifty years of experience in the Cooking appliances, Glem Gas is now a company that manufactures approximately 350,000 products each year, exporting to 84 countries worldwide

Established in 1959, Glem Gas has a fundamental aim: to maintain the highest specialization in its area of competence: Cooking. From Italy to many foreign markets, the company has gained the trust of trade operators and consumers with reliable, durable and cutting edge products.
Marco Guerzoni, product manager of the company based in Modena (Emilia Romagna region, Italy), tells in this interview the strengths of a production that stands out for its high level of know-how and breadth of range.

Let us briefly tell the history of Glem Gas: what are the highlights that led the company to the current development levels?
Glem Gas was founded at Modena in 1959 by three partners for the production of gas burners for domestic heating. In 1956 they developed the first range of free-standing cookers, while in 1975 they proposed a free-standing model with maxi cavity which allowed Glem Gas to expand to global markets and especially to establish its leadership in the Middle East. In 1989 a new factory of 34,000 m² was built at San Cesario sul Panaro (a few kilometers from Modena) which allowed the expansion of production activities and the development of a new mechanical department. To support this expansion, in 2000 three new subsidiaries were opened in Portugal, France and finally in Australia.
Between 2002 and 2008 Glem Gas grows rapidly introducing several technological innovations, improvements and optimizations, such as the Lean system (Toyota Production System) which promotes an efficient process management.
In 2013 Glem Gas products are distributed in more than 50 countries. To date the company has about 300 employees, most of them to the assembly lines, produces about 350,000 pieces per year (ovens, hobs and cookers) and is present in 84 markets in the world. Moreover for years it has been pursuing the implementation of the processes for minimizing the environmental impact of its activities.

What values have been leading the company since its birth until now?
The values of Glem are authenticity, quality and pragmatism, that inspire the principles of our design and the brand communication.
Authenticity for us means to go back to the root of the product, to recreate past forms with a new lexicon.
Quality coincides with the need to generate and implement always different and innovative ideas, requiring a deep knowledge of production processes and applied technologies.
Pragmatism orients our research on the value given by the utility of the product, what is really important: functionality, beauty, long life.

How is your current structure organized?
Our head, legal and administrative offices are located at San Cesario S/P, near Modena. Here are the production plant, the research laboratories, quality control and product assembly. The design center is mainly internal but sometimes we ask for external designers advice. Moreover, at Modena we have another factory: enamelling.
Glem owns three subsidiaries, one in France, one in Portugal and a third in Australia.
To date we count about 300 employees, we produce about 350,000 units a year (about 50,000 ovens, 90,000 hobs and 210,000 cookers) and we are present in 84 markets in the world with a turnover of 90 million euro.

Can you mention some flagship products standing out over the others?
In our wide product range undoubtedly the Magnifica free-standing cooker stands out. it was born mainly to meet the needs of the Middle East market where the introduction of dual turbo-fan in a gas maxi multifunction oven, allows to obtain maximum performance with a high energy efficiency and excellent cooking quality, in a product with large size (120 cm wide).
Furthermore we must mention Unica which has proven to be a very appreciated product on the market: it offers breadth and versatility, allowing to meet the needs of customers, especially the Italian ones.

Which are the strengths of Glem Gas range from the functional and design point of view?
The main Glem Gas strengths are variety and breadth of range, both in terms of size and aesthetics but especially of functionality; in fact they allow us to obtain excellent flexibility and versatility to effectively cover all markets. In addition we do not stop to reserve our commitment in producing gas cooking appliances, which, beside maintaining a real link with the tradition, is a choice determined by the added value and excellent performance that gas offers on many types of cooking.

How is your commercial network organized in Italy and abroad?
In Italy Glem Gas has an extensive network of sales representatives who serve all types of customers. As for the other countries, in some markets we have sales representative too (ie France, Portugal and Australia), otherwise we have a network of importers/wholesalers, we considered our partners.

Does your range differentiate on the basis of the destination markets?
Yes, we have different ranges that meet the most varied needs of each specific market. We count about 84 distributors customers around the world (excluding North America), and we are more present in the European market (mainly in France, Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands), in the Middle Eastern and North African market, and finally, in the Australian one.

If you had to introduce your company and offer to foreign kitchen distributors that do not know you yet, what would you tell them?
After over fifty years of activity, to be “Specialists in Cooking” continues to be our main focus: it is the reason why our products for the kitchen are performant, multi-function and reliable at the same time.

What trend does Cooking sector reserve us for the next future?
We mainly identify two key trends: multi-cooking and energy efficiency. In the near future we will certainly be moving on this line, but we also have some more ideas…