MCT Italy celebrates its first 55 year
Lamberto Marcantonini founded his company in 1967 in Bettona, an old Etruscan town in central Umbria, Italy.
The first firm name was A.E.I. (Automazioni Elettriche Industriali) and it was settled in a tiny office rented in the village. Two years later, it already had 4 employees and 3 batching plants under production; four years later, the brand was exhibiting its brand-new solutions abroad. Today, MCT Italy (current company name) is a worldwide leader in the field of batching plants for concrete production and distribution systems.
Since its establishment, the company has been managing the complexity of the production cycle, transport and distribution of concrete, developing for the customer integrated and customized technological systems in relation to his objectives.
In these past 55 years, the vocation for the science of the founder Lamberto has been a reference point for all his co-workers and associates, who learnt from him to overcome every challenge with tenacity and rigor.
Today, his son Andrea Marcantonini continues to hold the helm of MCT firmly, looking proudly at the exceptional company experience and planning an increasingly international and performing future in providing customized technical solutions.
Into history
How can one explain such a great outcome in such a short time? The initial spark, as per Lamberto’s own words, was provided by Volta’s battery, a small experiment made in school which a very young Lamberto repeated at home.
The bizarre impulse Volta was able to produce proved to be a revolutionary invention, and for the founder of MCT Italy it was the very first glint of the great premises we can see nowadays.
The landmarks of his career as an entrepreneur are renowned: In the early 70s, the brand started to build its reputation both in Italy and Europe, thanks to fortunate intuitions that have brought important innovations. The first, for example, was in 1974: that is when the company became the first one in Italy to develop concrete batching plants with aggregates dosing systems by volume, thus making the whole process more effective.
1976 is when the Marcantonini company exported its very first plant abroad: Kenitra, in Morocco, was the first destination of the export adventure, immediately followed by Thailand and Switzerland.
The same year also saw another important innovation within the production, with the switch from electromechanical to electronic automation. Advances in technology, coupled with growing global reputation, paid off with steady sales abroad in Iran, Iraq, France, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, too.
Towards the end of the 80s, two major goals were achieved: The first plant sold in the USA which afterwards led to a flourishing growth of the American market; and secondly, the development of a big batching and transport plant in Umbria, with 8 flying buckets, 5 casting buckets and half gantry concrete distributors.
From the 90s onwards, the challenge was therefore to create increasingly complex systems to meet the various needs of the customers, providing turnkey projects and customized solutions, also partnering with the worldwide leading suppliers in the precast, prestressed, masonry and zero slump fields.
The new Millennium
The new millennium brought new challenges to the company, which has always paid great attention to automation, pioneering the field of remote assistance and maintenance service since 1994, when the first plant displayed a management and distribution system via a software running on Windows OS was realized.
In 2004, MCT has realized its most complex structure ever: 16 aggregate hoppers, 4 mixers, color distributors, fiber distributors, 6 flying buckets, 1,000mt of rails with switches, 6 casting machines, 2 casting buckets, including 2- and 4-wheel drive buckets with electric engine and toothed belt drive. A major outcome for the Italian market, immediately followed by another one: a new cement hub with huge vertical silos which were subject to extreme weather conditions, such as wind of 220km/h and extremely low temperatures, in a highly seismic zone in Iceland.
These important results, combined with the growing demands of the American market, made the opening of the US branch an extremely natural event: In 2007, the MCT Group was founded in the USA. The following step was, of course, landing to the last remaining continent, Australia, and the company did it in 2011 its way: some of the plants MCT has exported and realized produce nowadays the precast elements for the constructions of the subways of Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
2016 marks another turning point for MCT Italy: This is in fact the year when the company started installing in the plants the new CompuNet software, entirely developed by the technical offices. This innovative software was realized to become the very brain of the business conception.
Vision and Mission
The company has always been driven by a strong passion and commitment to the work and to the desire to build and maintain solid relationships based on trust with the clients. Hard work, technological innovation and turnkey projects have always represented the main guidelines of the brand production.
Since 1967, MCT Italy has remained faithful to its values, strongly convinced about the importance of thinking globally and acting locally. This has led to strong partnership with international concrete innovators, creating concrete values for customers.
On the other hand, also, the company has always supported the local community that hosts the firm and its factory. Donations to the schools, sponsorship in touristic and sport events, active participation in the training of young talents, patronage of regional artistic initiatives: These are just examples of what MCT Italy has given back to its hometown and the people.
The reason, as founder Lamberto says, is quite simple: “We need to work hard today to ensure a better tomorrow. And there is no better way to build a new tomorrow than sharing with others what you have achieved along the years.”
