Bruno Guidi heads a firm that has been in business for fifty years, a leader in the nautical accessories sector with 4,200 articles in its catalogue, all strictly made in Italy. He told us the story of Guidi Srl, describing its success and how people and the ability to build real relationshipshave always been at the heart of it all
by Luca Sordelli – photo by Jill Mathis and Enrica Pastore
TALKING TO BRUNO GUIDI MEANS GOING BACK THROUGH THE HISTORY OF ITALIAN YACHTING. He founded his company fifty years ago when going to sea “for leisure”was still very rare. There were very few shipyards at the time and the world of modern yachting was just beginning.
During our interview, Bruno Guidi looks back over this half century with fascinating precision, not leaving anything out and remembering all the dates and figures perfectly. However, his words always revolve around people, around the men and women who worked with and for him.
I’m extremely struck by this duality: on the one hand an inflexible memory, obsessed with detail, on the other a focuson those flesh-and-blood people who worked alongside him to turn Guidi Srl into what it is today, starting from nothing. People who shared the successes and the hard times with him. It’s no coincidence that the banks are his sworn “enemies”: “In need, they just see you as a number”.
He’s a real businessman, but also someone who has always kept his word throughout his career: “A handshake is worth more than a contract”. When he speaks to me, I can sense he really wants to tell his story. He has a meticulous memory of the past, but he’s also concerned about looking to the future. He’s not someone who gives in to nostalgia. In his case, the future is represented by his two sons, Daniele and Alessandro, who are with him at the interview and also work alongsidehim in the running of Guidi Srl.
Bruno Guidi between his son Daniele and Alessandro, Quality Manager and Design Manager respectively
Bruno Guidi, let’s start at the beginning.
I completed compulsory education, then I got a job at an artisanal firm, that allowed me to continue my studies with training courses and mechanical technology. It taught me a great deal and was the place where I started working with cutters and lathes. I did a lot of manual work and some of it was very hard.
When did you found Guidi?
March 1968. I worked for third parties, in Valduggia, Borgosesia, San Maurizio area, not far from Lake Orta. I was based in a 50-m2foundry in Borgosesia. We earned a lot per piece, depending on the difficulty of the realization and how many passages it required. There was no lack of work.
All this took place far from the sea, at the foot of Mount Rosa. How did you get involved in the world of yachting?
In the summer I usually went to the seaside in Goro, in Romagna, on the Po Delta, which is where my mother’s family was from. However, I was more interested in fishing boats than the beaches. I looked at them, studied them and was fascinated by them. This is how I came into contact with the owner of a local shipyard that also was founded in 1968. They made fishing boats and I liked to look around. It’s thanks to them that I subsequently went on to manufacture my first pieces for the nautical world.
What were they?
A pump, which is still in production nowadays. It was a manual brass pump for the oil sump and it cost 350 Lire. The shipyard in Goro got its supplies from Milan-based Nanni, then Nanni Diesel. The pump I made in the 1970s was for them. My first client was Giovanni Ubaldi from Nanni, who marinised Farymann engines, based on Mercedes.
So you didn’t go to the beach in Goro, but did you go out boating?
Of course, but I went fishing. I went out on those fantastic fishing boats, the ones with the nets, for years. We fished for tuna and there were plenty of them in the early 1980s. I remember when we caught one weighing 180 kg! But we also went up the valley by night to catch eels.
Guidi has 13 patents
Your clients today include big names such as Azimut and the Ferretti Group. When did you achieve a definitive place for yourself among the yachting greats?
We attended the Genoa Boat Show for the first time in 1982 and this was the turning point. We were in Pavilion S: newcomerson the top floor. This was an opportunity to make contact with new foreign clients first and foremost. Wholesalers from Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Although they were competitors, I remember that they all drove down to Genoa together. They were good people. They’re still clients today.
With them, there was immediately full understanding and mutual trust. Shaking hands had more value than signing a contract. It was a matter of intellectual honesty, and also having the ability to establish real, long-lasting human relations. This was true when we travelled around promoting our catalogues in France and the Netherlands too. Those markets proved fundamental to our rapid growth. We grew together.
Then came the 1990s and everything changed.
Yes, the 1991 crisis was very hard. It lasted until 1994. The government decided that “the rich had to suffer too,” that being rich meant being a tax evader. At that time I had to mortgage the house to keep going. It was then that I realised we’re just numbers for the banks, even though human relations are the most important thing. The banks were offering loans at an interest rate of 23%. When I tried to negotiate, they told me there was no room for negotiation.
Ultimately the suppliers were the ones who saved me, trusting me and giving me time. And also the customers that bought from me even if they didn’t have a pressing need to do so. they helped me through difficult times.
Was the 2008 crisis hard too?
Very much so. In 2007 the company achieved its highest ever turnover: 11 million Euros. In 2009 it was exactly half that. We’re now growing all the time, but we’ve still not got back to that figure, we’re at 7.9 million euros. The problem is that many of our clients from 2008 no longer exist. But we made it, we worked less, obviously, but we didn’t let anyone go apart from a small number who had short-term contracts. There were thirty of us then and there are still thirty of us today.
How did you manage?
I learnt from the first crisis. First and foremost by freeing myself from reliance on the banks and then by building real links with people, both within the company, which is like a family and on the outside. After 2008, I became someone who was able to help out clients in difficulty, just as others had done for me. It is thus that lasting relationships are established.
We began the story back in 1968, in a 50-m2ex foundry. Now Guidi occupies 1,700 m2and also has a 1,800-m2warehouse.
Yes, and finally, after three years of waiting, we had the green light from the local authorities to expand by another 2,500 m2. What’s the secret behind all this? Investing in the growth of the company and believing in technology. Our story runs in parallel with the story of our patents, from the first one for a filter in 1982 to the most recent one for the Alex non-stick valve. You have to be able to bring craftsmanship and automation together. Every year we buy new machinery. The latest arrivals are three large vertical warehouses. They are expensive but necessary investments.
So, you always keep moving.
Are you still going out with the fishing boats? Not anymore, but I spent 36 years fishing for trout in our mountain creeks.
(People at the heart of everything – Barchemagazine.com – Novembre 2019)
