It was with deep regret that I heard the news of the death of Luigi Marchetti, who passed away after a brief illness on February 6th. Born on July 20th 1927, he had served the crane company and industry that he loved for fifty years. Last year I had the immense privilege of interviewing Marchetti as he looked back over his career.
In 2009, Marchetti’s business celebrated its 50th birthday. Over those years, more than 150 crane builders have come, and often gone, in Europe, and at least half of those in Italy. Throughout, Luigi Marchetti managed his business, taking day-to-day responsibility for its operations.
Marchetti was an Italian entrepreneur and artisan engineer in the classical tradition. Even at 82-years ‘young’, Luigi still drove his car to work everyday to control his crane making and numerous other business activities. And on most Saturdays he could be found walking the floors of the factory checking product quality, activity and the tidiness of the plant.
Very much in the Italian tradition, Marchetti’s business activities remain located in the family hometown of Piacenza, one of Northern Italy’s most heavily industrialised towns. It was here in 1956 that Luigi Marchetti with his brothers established a small carpentry business. The energetic Luigi was already looking for fresh opportunities and it didn’t take long for him to branch out on his own, fabricating iron reinforcements for bridges, tunnels and electricity generating power plants. Through this venture he soon had his first encounter with mobile cranes, which he needed to rent to lift and handle his heavier fabrications.
After paying for just a few days crane rental, the young Luigi Marchetti recognised a business with much greater appeal to him than simple metal fabricating. One day after observing a small and very basic mobile crane being used by a local food processing company, he approached the owner and purchased it on the spot. The ‘crane’ was in fact a short jib and front winch mounted on a modified US Army war-surplus Jeep. The Jeep and its ‘crane’ were not in the best working condition so with the help of an associate with connections in Germany, Luigi Marchetti purchased the components necessary to bring the machine up to proper working order. Demand in and around Piacenza for Luigi’s ‘crane’ quickly developed to the extent that he decided to build more machines and through a business associate from Rome, he purchased four more US war-surplus Jeeps and set about converting them into small mobile cranes.
Marchetti was not alone in Italy or indeed in Europe during the 1940s and 1950s converting war-surplus vehicles as the base for rudimentary mobile cranes. Most of these, like Luigi’s first efforts, employed two-axle trucks which when modified for lifting duties tended to bog down and get stuck. So, with the assistance of three technicians from the carpentry business, Luigi Marchetti set about modifying his crane, adding a third axle and wider tyres to improve both flotation and stability. This became the Marchetti MG 3, a lattice boom truck crane of 3t capacity.
Marchetti established his business on solid commercial grounds. “I’m proud to say that whatever problems came my way, I always solved them personally. The company had no mortgages or debts. What we had, we owned. I never needed to go to the banks to ask for money. From the very beginning I was independent and financially healthy.”
By 1960 Marchetti’s crane business had progressed significantly. That year saw the introduction of the 6t capacity MG 6T3AM, a truck crane mounted on a purpose-designed carrier available with a choice of lattice and hydraulic telescopic booms and offering outriggers as well as pick-and-carry capacities. Building on his early experience, Marchetti placed heavy emphasis upon off-highway travel capabilities with 6×6-wheel drive standard on his new crane.
By 1963 a larger 8t capacity version was added and soon afterwards this was followed by the 16t capacity MG 16T 3AM. To broaden the international appeal as well as improving performance and serviceability, the new 16-tonner was powered by a Ford diesel engine and had US hoist reduction gearboxes. In 1970 the 20t capacity MG 77 TEL fully hydraulic telescopic boom truck crane joined the family.
From the beginning it was Marchetti himself who handled sales. He traveled the length and breadth of Italy to find customers as well as agents. When he travelled on component purchasing trips to Germany, he’d use the opportunity to find local distributors. Marchetti’s willingness and ability to develop innovative vehicle concepts also opened new doors.
One particularly memorable sale was to the leading Spanish international contractor Dragados. Marchetti was invited by Dragados to consider their requirement for twenty front-discharge concrete delivery trucks, which were needed for a hydroelectric scheme in Turkey. The mountainous job site involved very narrow tracks with no space available for the large diameter steering circles needed by conventional trucks. To solve the problem Marchetti proposed an entirely new 4×4 wheel-steer truck with wheels that had extraordinarily sharp steering angles of 90-degrees axles – allowing them to quite literally turn on the spot. The idea won the contract and the trucks proved so successful in Turkey that Dragados’ French consortium partner ordered a further twenty of them for use on a major hydroelectric project in Argentina. Remarkably, the French placed the order before there had been any discussion on price and the blank order document was completed by Marchetti.
Soon afterwards, product development flowed through to Marchetti’s crane line where crab steer was introduced as an option on his 4×4 wheel drive truck cranes. However, despite this example of ‘diversification’, from the early days of his business, Marchetti was fully focused on the crane business. “From the beginning we offered a line of standard cranes, not machines designed to customer order.”
As Marchetti’s reputation grew and the company’s network of sales agents and distributors broadened, customers still wanted to do business directly with Luigi Marchetti. A favourite customer was Snr Campari, a contractor based in Milan who specialised in the transport and erection of pre-fabricated concrete buildings. “Campari became a ‘lover’ of our cranes and wanted to be the first customer for our new models”, he told me. “Even if we simply mentioned an idea for a new crane, Campari wanted to be the first buyer. My local agent would visit Campari and try to get him to give him the order but Campari would say ‘Thank you for your visit but I want to close the deal with Snr Marchetti’. The agent would try to explain how the crane worked, etc to Snr Campari but he’d reply, ‘don’t worry we know that better than you do. Please call Snr Marchetti’”, smiled Luigi Marchetti.
Unfortunately the relationship ended in tragic circumstances, with Campari’s family the victims of mafia extortion. The matter was resolved, but, Marchetti says, “The experience shattered him and changed his life. Soon afterwards he gave up the business but thankfully lived on until about ten years ago when he passed away peacefully.”
When asked what problems he has encountered during his long career, Luigi Marchetti is sanguine and philosophical. “There have been no problems to speak of,” he shrugs. “I had my own job. The first crane I built was for my own use. My business and my cranes had a good reputation. I never worried about anything because I had no debts and owned everything. Even the economic crisis of the 1980s was not a big problem. When other manufacturers were laying people off or even closing down, I kept all of my employees and built 40 cranes for stock. At the start of the crisis the typical market price had was Lira 80 million but afterwards I was able to sell them at Lira 120 million”
Luigi Marchetti remained as close to the product as he has always been. “My favourite crane was the MG 364, a 32t capacity telescopic truck crane that we introduced in 1978. That year we became an SpA and moved into our new factory in Via Caorsana. The MG 364 became a fabulous best seller for us and when we eventually discontinued it, many customers were disappointed. So as we began to sell new models we’d look for old MG 364s we could take as trade-ins to sell them to ‘fans’ of the older model. Two years later we produced our first rough terrain crane, the 30t capacity MG 244 TEL, as well as our first all terrain, the 28/30t capacity MG 344 TEL, which was also the first AT made in Italy. Another one of my favourite cranes was the five-axle 100t MG 195 with large single tyres all round that we introduced in 1983. It was the first 100t truck crane built in Italy and today would have been called an all terrain”.
So, looking back, what gave Luigi Marchetti the most satisfaction? “Most important of all is the legacy, the achievements over these 50-years, the respect that the name Marchetti has with crane users not only in Italy and Europe but in more than seventy countries around the world. The fact that customers place repeat orders for Marchetti cranes and trust us to satisfy their needs. That it very important and really makes me happy. But on a personal level what I have enjoyed the most is that it’s my business and I don’t have any partners.”
