Company plans to grow West Chester workforce following relocation

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

A company with a Butler County facility is looking to expand its workforce.

Fameccanica North America designs and produces equipment for the hygiene sector and for packaging applications at its facility at 8511 Trade Center Drive, in West Chester Twp. Its main consumer products areas are baby and adult diapers, ladies sanitary napkins and absorbent pads, paper packaging and detergent packaging.

The company, which employs more than 60 people, is planning to expand to 72 employees by next June, according to Eugenio Venturato, its president.

Fameccanica is hiring more because the North American market is “very large and presents a lot of opportunity, or best opportunities” for the growth of the company’s business, Venturato said.

“Fameccanica NA has been growing, expanded capabilities and competencies, providing a good contribution to the group’s economics,” he said. “This is where the group is planning to invest a lot in the next five years; we’re now expanding in other sectors and hiring top talents in the engineering and production areas to support the growing needs. Unfortunately, we can’t keep up.”

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

The company relocated in March from Muhlhauser Road to an 86,000-square-foot facility at West Chester Trade Center on the corner of Ohio 747 and Union Centre Boulevard. The new facility also gives Fameccanica about 14,000 square feet of office space.

“We relocated here ... from a smaller space that had a layout and infrastructure not suited anymore for our business,” Venturato said.

The biggest challenge facing Fameccanica is the “market speed of actions and reactions,” which he said is increasing “at a faster pace almost by the months, not years.”

Also a challenge is recruiting and developing people and capabilities fast enough to address the needs, Venturato said.

“With broad knowledge and expertise that we have developed, coupled with the motivation from the shareholders to invest here, we are in a prime spot to succeed, but only if we can adjust fast enough,” he said.

New employees should be heartened by the fact that Fameccanica NA went from zero to 60 employees and zero to $40 million sales in 10 years, Venturato said.

“Probably half the supervisor and manager roles today are positions were we promoted from within,” he said.

The company sometimes finds difficulty in hiring because it is not a large company with a famous brand name, but rather a subsidiary of an Italian Group. Venturato said working to promote the advanced technologies and processes with which Fameccanica NA deals, coupled with informing applicants of its“dynamic, friendly work environment” may help.

The company plans to grow revenues to $100 million in less than five years, which would require it to have between 90 to 11 full-time employees, he said.

For information about jobs at Fameccanica, visit www.fameccanica.com/careers.

About the Author