ACEM
The Door Factory
A company with long-standing traditions, looking to the future

The history of ACEM began in Reggio Calabria, in the 1960s, with Vittorio Cortese, a great entrepreneur who was able to conquer a vast market, despite the fact that he was working from a territory lacking basic infrastructures and services. Conceived from the start as an industrial operation, albeit on a small scale, after a few years the production of shutters was replaced on a definitive basis by the production of interior doors. 1969 marked the attainment of one of the many targets the company had set for itself, with the inauguration of a new plant in San Gregorio. The new manufacturing systems installed at the new site extending over 5,000 m2 relied on the most advanced technologies available at the time: in addition to squaring-edging-smoothing and painting lines, a pressing line for honeycomb core panels, ensuring an output of ca four-hundred pieces/day, was installed. The layout of the plant was carefully thought out in every detail and optimised in every aspect, according to the principles of “quality manufacturing”. Training courses for young people aged fourteen to eighteen were organised shortly afterwards, based on the founder’s idea that “the door factory is a culture factory too”. Indubitably, this was an uncommon initiative at the time, especially in the wood processing sector in southern Italy.

Between the late Sixties and the early Eighties, the market underwent a drastic transformation, affecting ACEM, which became a Joint Stock Company (1983). Cortese gave up direct sales in favour of a sales policy based on a different distribution system focusing on new players. At the time, building material retailers were inaugurating the first showrooms designed to appeal to private customers, and had begun to extend their offer to doors. Demand was changing too, as consumers began to seek higher quality products and greater flexibility. This period saw yet another major step forward from the standpoint of technological innovation, when Consuelo and Paolo took over the management of the company from their father Vittorio, and new machinery was installed, including a new automatic pressing line, a finishing line for plane panels, a smoothing line for untreated panels, smoothing and painting lines for profiles, a numerically controlled router and two numerically controlled drilling/hinge-fitting lines.

At the dawn of the new millennium, ACEM made a number of investments that changed drastically the dimensions of the company, in preparation for future market requirements. In 2001, ACEM inaugurated a new production site in the industrial zone of San Leo and equipped it with leading-edge manufacturing systems, finishing lines and profile drilling/packaging lines. All production lines were replaced and a squaring/edge processing line specially constructed by Homag was installed. Within the framework of an extensive development and modernisation plan, the use of electronic control has been extended to all the machines of the company, whose activities are fully automated now and organised around the interaction of three areas: production programming, quality control, logistics. Nowadays, ACEM provides work for fifty people, most of them young and trained in-house to acquire professional skills in the fields of carpentry and information technology.

In keeping with its strong commitment to the protection of the environment, for the San Gregorio plant the company studies and puts in place highly advanced, green solutions.

“We want to protect the health of the people who use our products, – explains Consuelo Cortese – believing that everyone has the right to use doors that are eco-compatible, and this is why we are constantly searching for materials conforming to the strictest standards on the quality of indoor environments. This is exemplified by the certification granted by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which is indispensable to gain access to the Japanese market: it requires a drastic reduction in the quantity of formaldehyde used, a restriction we have gladly applied to our entire product range. As far as ACEM is concerned, doors with performance characteristics fit for use in bio-building applications are a reality”.

The manufacturing system of the company is certified for conformity to the UNI EN ISO 9001:2000 quality standards and the UNI EN ISO 14001 environmental management standards: this is evidence of ACEM’s undivided attention to the environment, as borne out by the use of non-polluting materials and the abatement of potentially harmful emissions. Products made of wood particles (chipboard or MDF panels) conform to the requirements set forth in the applicable UNI-EN standard for class E1 items. All paint is formaldehyde-free and, thanks to its composition, is classified as non-toxic. The Vero Legno (True Wood) label is a further guarantee of the transparency of ACEM’s product policies.

For fifty years, ACEM has used wood, a natural material, for its doors, and has offered products that express the original qualities of the species selected: even texture, warm hues. Wood is the common denominator of all company activities, and the family has a passion for all aspects of wood – from solid wood and veneers to all the technologically advanced materials that are obtained from trees and can be industrialised – while they shun all products and materials not of natural origin. Paolo Cortese goes on to say: “My sister and I grew up with the smell of wood in our nostrils and have always been fond supporters of this natural material. This is one aspect through which we feel close to our father, who, in addition to the heritage of the company know-how, handed down to us the outlook that continues to be the basis of Acem’s development”.

To be competitive on the domestic market and gain ground on export markets faster than many northern companies, the strategy of the Cortese company has been to promote the industrialisation of the sector through technological progress, so as to bring about the so called “leaps in company size”.

From the initial efforts based on personal relationships, to the reality of today, where sales to foreign markets account for over a third of ACEM’s turnover. The main outlet markets include Greece, Israel, Japan, Korea, the United Arab Emirates. The development plans of the company are important, as pointed out by Paolo Cortese: “For the future we plan to introduce a number of innovations designed to strengthen a strategy that will enable us to industrialise the product as a function of the needs of the market we want to penetrate, especially Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai in the Far East, and all the Middle East: countries that today, thanks to the development of the communication technologies and the possibility to use the nearby harbour of Gioia Tauro are not distant anymore. We shall build up our operations in the markets where we are already present, and we shall identify the most appropriate buyers, with whom we can create the right feeling, that are interested in a product entirely Made-in-Italy”.

The policy of small steps, tenacious research, making choices leading to slow but uninterrupted progress: this is ACEM’s plan. "We shall continue as long as there is wood” concludes Consuelo Cortese.