So, is it Sovil 50th year?
Sovil was founded in 1974 by my father, Vincenzo. It is the acronym of SOCIETA’ VITERBESE ILLUMINAZIONE, now registered as SOVIL. SOVIL was born as a factory assembling glass imported from Czechoslovakia for lighting fixtures production. In 1977 we decided to expand the production and focus on indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures. In 1984, the vocation of a manufacturer in the lighting sector started the activity of ViterVetro, a company dealing with the moulding of plastic materials for the production of lighting fixtures. Later on, in 2003, this production unit was definitively absorbed by SOVIL.
Therefore, Sovil is a historic Italian manufacturer of lighting fixtures. But were there decisive moments that shaped the fundamental choices for your business?
Certainly! What has distinguished us from day one is the passion and the entrepreneurial skills that led to a strategic and successful turning point in 1996, i.e., the internationalization of our production units at a factory in China, always coordinated by our know-how. That was an innovative and certainly ambitious choice, which, thanks to years of experience, allowed us to obtain significant results in the outdoor lighting market in the following years.
How has the distribution world changed today, and what are your peculiarities?
Definitely, a company like ours must now have a large availability of ready-to-ship items, ranging from classic to modern style, and service increasingly attentive to customer requests. That is why the market identifies us as a reliable and competitive company. Another distinguishing feature is the selection of raw materials, the meticulous attention to the product finishing and the extreme care of packaging, also in environmental and eco-sustainable terms. Our production is periodically subject to quality and safety checks to ensure high-level reliability. The company is certified ISO 9001-2015.
How do you deal with the continuous changes in this sector caused, in recent years, by new technologies applied to light sources? How much do you invest in research and development?
At the design level, we are always ready to meet technological challenges. I am personally engaged in the research and development of new products and technologies, not least the entry of LED modules called easy to change on most of our products, thus ensuring the consumer the trustworthiness of the purchased LED products. The work we are doing daily for a constant increase in reliability has also allowed us to extend the guarantee of almost all our devices from 3 to 5 years. We also continue to develop products working with solar energy and remote-control systems.
Well, better to explain to our readers what Sovil is today, we would need a few numbers …
Happy and proud to give them to you! And to best answer your question, I would like to list a few numbers in sequence: 49 – 140 – 1,000 – 10,000. Let me explain:
As I told you, we have been active for 49 years, and next year we are celebrating our 50th.
We currently have 140 product lines.
We manage over 1,000 items.
10,000 sqm is the covered area of our factory in Soriano nel Cimino in the province of Viterbo, Italy.
We are a dynamic structure with young and highly flexible human resources, able to adapt to specific market demands. We are constantly investing in new technologies and services that allow us to perform numerous internal, photometric and resistance mechanical tests on our equipment. Therefore, we are what the market appreciates us for, a historic Italian company with its own design and project entirely “made in Italy”.
At this point, can you explain to us what your mission really is today?
Your question enables me to express where we are going. In 2019 we agreed with my father and decided to make a relevant change to our business strategies. We then decided to focus on the world of electrical and lighting equipment distribution, identifying them as preferred partners. That choice requires us to grow and further develop our agencies in Italy and revise our sales policy.
What will be the strategic commercial objectives for the next three years?
After 2022, at the large-scale distribution, we saw the world of light suffer a market downturn with no exciting results. We aim to be increasingly a reference for our distributors’ partners, attentive to their needs, to dialogue with them alongside them in the challenges that arise, step by step. We also focus on acquiring new market shares and commit to continuing our sales growth trend through significant investments. Indeed, we have doubled the warehouse with increasingly performing products with different colour temperatures, whereas the considerable investment in human resources with the entry into the team of relevant professional figures (managers and engineers) for our offices Marketing, Technology and Product Development.
In a few words, we wish to work in an increasingly clear market, at a technological and regulatory level, through simple and defined references, with partners able to face new challenges with passion and confidence.
Qualities that for years have distinguished companies like Sovil: Italian Lighting Solution.
Pic 3: device Design Manager.
Pic 4: device Assistance and Maintenance.
