A machine from Biesse Group could have made the floor you are standing on, the window where you look out onto the World, the door you pass into the sunlight, the furniture you sit on or the cabinets in your kitchen and bathroom.

Since 1969, Biesse have manufactured technology for processing wood, glass, stone, plastic and advanced materials, and metal. In just a few weeks, the company will celebrate 20 years in Australia as a branch of the worldwide Biesse Group. Built on a solid foundation that started in earnest in the early 1980’s when Allwood Machinery brought the first numeric control Rover machine to Australia, the group is now one of the major players in the supply of quality machines to the Australian and New Zealand market.

Biesse Group opened the first foreign branch in the United States in the 1989, leading to the explosion of business and an increasingly strong presence in more and more markets. The company operates through over 300 agents and dealers in 120 countries and is supplied by 12 production sites, located both in Italy and other strategic countries such as India, opened in 2008 to cater for mostly local demand. A number of training ‘campus’ have been built in strategic areas to promote the product and cater for the training needs of Biesse customers.

Biesse Group is active in a number of industries to satisfy many diverse markets. Biesse is most well-known for their woodworking machines, in particular, CNC machines, mostly what are often referred to as point to point routers, or machining centres, where material is processed by a number of different tools such as drill bits, saw blades and routing spindles. Dedicated Biesse routing machines, beam (panel) saws, sanding machines, and edge banders have also been introduced to the trades and provide customers with a one-stop shop, especially in the production of cabinetry from manufactured boards.

Intermac is another Biesse Group division that concentrates on machines to process glass, stone, and metals. Many international, design-driven companies use Biesse machines to produce items with these materials such as Fiam Glass (Italy), Wood-Skin (Italy), Sky Corporation (Japan), Bram Woodworking Studio (India), Yachtline 1618 (Italy), The Sagrada Familia Carpentry Workshop (Spain), Factory Unit 3D car modelling for Lexus and Toyota (France), and in Australia, musical instrument manufacturers Maton Guitars and the Sydney String Centre.

Biesse Group People

Biesse Group employs 4,300 people worldwide in manufacturing, sales, and technical support. In Australia, those like me, mature members of the industry, will recall John Cover and Jake Martin, the ‘game changers’ who established Biesse as a leading brand in Australia and New Zealand with ground-breaking new Biesse CNC technologies. Many of those early people are still active in the industry, such is the significance of Allwood Machinery and Biesse as an industry training platform for heavy equipment suppliers.

Biesse Group CEO Roberto Selci said at the last AWISA show in Sydney, sadly too long ago now, “It’s the human contact that makes the difference. We increasingly aim to be a large group that is digital in its technology, but human in its relationships.” Australian CEO Michael Bullock agrees, “Certainly from a service and after sales support perspective, it’s all about people and we are looking forward to increasing our personal contact with our customers now that we are able to travel more freely. We are definitely looking forward to meeting as many of our customers as possible at our open house from 22nd to 24th June in Sydney.”

Biesse Group Innovation and Quality

Biesse Group employs over 300 persons involved in research and development activities, totalling approximately 206,000 working hours every year. This commitment ensures the relevance of Biesse products and guarantees their customers a continual supply of class-leading machinery and technology, such as Biesse’s new High Dynamics (High speed) processing. This ensures that whatever their customers are engaged in, they will benefit from Biesse Group’s ongoing product development.

Moving forward, Biesse Group chief financial officer Mr. P. La Tour recently reported, “The group will continue to promote innovation and research, convinced that these are two strategic and essential ingredients for sustainable growth.” Quality starts from the ground up, so Biesse provide almost 70,000 hours of technical training and approximately 6,000 hours of safety training to their people every year. The fact that 1,500 people with more than ten years of work experience with Biesse Group are still employed by the company, ensures a continuing legacy of quality and performance.

Biesse Group Communication

Raphael Prati, BIESSE Group Corporate Marketing and Communications Director knows Australia very well. He recently said “We are investing in service to our customers; this is a key factor for Biesse Group. Leading technology; customer support; software; everything goes in the direction of making our customers’ life easier.” This focus on service is not new; John Cover, co-owner of Allwood (Biesse) Machinery once famously said, “Service is the most important part of our business, and we can always do more.”

Part of any good service program is looking after the customer’s machines in the long term. Lee Barlow is Biesse Group Australia sales manager. He says, “We don’t just provide a machine, we provide a solution for a specific manufacturing need, and we provide that solution for the life of the machine, and we believe that should be as long as possible, or as long as the customer needs it.” Lee continues, “We’re also concentrating on our hotline for service and parts, and this is proving to be very effective in supporting our customer base.”

Biesse Group worldwide

In 1969, Biesse machines revolutionised the furniture market, with solutions that served to set new technological standards in the industry. Then, in 1989, the opening of the company’s first foreign subsidiary marked the beginning of an intensive process of internationalisation, which helped to establish the brand worldwide. In 2019 Biesse Group celebrated 50 years. Today, Biesse Group operate 39 branches, five of them making up Biesse Oceania here in Australia, a division that ranks in the top five with turnover and number of people.

‘Let’s speak more and write less,’ is a sentiment held by Biesse Group. Now that people are learning to live with COVID and getting out more, the people at Biesse Group look forward to meeting their customers in person again. Lee says, “We like to see people face to face wherever possible. The group is always working on new innovations such as our ROS (Robotic Operating System) and while this is not for everyone, what we learn from our continuing R&D flows down to all our products.” It’s people, collaborative machines and smart software that will drive innovation and Biesse Group is at the forefront of continuous improvement, driven by their customer’s needs.