How did the company evolve in cleaning solutions and reached to where it is today?
RCM (Raimondi Costruzioni Meccaniche) produced the first mechanized sweeping machine in 1967. The story of the company is anyway longer: at the end of the XIX century, Ippolito Raimondi was already active in the mechanical sector, producing bicycles and selling cars produced by Società Italiana Bernardi Padova, one of the first car producers in Italy. From 1922, the son, Romeo Raimondi, has been producing motorcycles, diesel engines and tractors under the brand RC. At the end of the 60s, the company started, first in Italy, the production of floor cleaning machines, becoming soon one of the European market leaders. In the 1976, RCM exhibited a complete range of sweepers at ISSA Interclean, Amsterdam.
Starting from 2008, RCM has developed the project RCM Cleaning Solutions to enlarge the offerings in terms of products and services: RCM Cleaning Professionals for training, consultancy and products, PULIRENT for rental services of industrial machines.
Currently, RCM is offering one of the largest range of floor cleaning machines for industrial use and urban cleaning. What are the innovations introduced by the company?
RCM has always offered to the market innovative solutions in order to increase the efficiency of the machines, to prove cleaning results and make the machines easy to operate and maintain. RCM has also met the eco-friendly trends with new systems such as Aqua Saver, Deter Saver, Energy Saver and Dust Saver to reduce the impact of cleaning methods on the environment.
How do you see India as a market? What are the products and applications do you foresee for the India market?
India is currently one of the largest and fast growing economies in the world. The need and the awareness of professional cleaning tools are increasing day by day. On the other hand, the labour costs are still quite low in comparison to western countries. In general, the Indian market for floor cleaning machines is still mostly low price oriented. The demand of high quality machines is slowly growing in the recent years only. But, it is of course designated to grow faster in the near future.
Which segment/industries are you planning to cater in India?
RCM machines are traditionally suitable for heavy duties and industrial segments. In fact, we build up our experience and our know how by offering machines to traditional industries in the North of Italy (Ceramic tiles factories, Mechanical industries in general). We are confident that we can offer good solutions for any applications, from heavy industries to large areas in private and public areas. We focus our message on the fact that, at the end of the day, using a high quality machine will make the cleaning operations more efficient.
RCM has a long experience of customisation of the products, thanks to the production flexibility. We like to offer not only machines, but also a real and complete cleaning solution.
What are your plans for expansion, brand promotion and exports?
RCM goal for the next three years is to make its positions stronger in the traditional markets (Europe, Australia, Asia-Pacific, Middle-East) and enlarge the share in other markets, especially fast growing markets like India. The partnership with Charnock, one of the biggest players in the Indian cleaning market, is developing and becoming stronger.
We know we produce good machines, but this is not enough to be successful in the cleaning market now. We have to offer to the market and first to our local partners, a complete service: before and after the use of the machine. Therefore, we are developing the range of products and services which we can offer to the market. Specific detergents and tools to be used with our machines and specialized training for our local partners are the base of this strategy.
With the evolving cleaning sector and changing customer preferences, what are the challenges you face?
At this moment, the target is to reduce the production costs to offer cheaper and more competitive products to the market. Our challenge is also to provide products of very high quality.
