An interview with Francesco Ferrari

Today we would like to introduce Francesco Ferrari, who has been in charge of the company's R&D department for several years. With experience gained over many years in the industry and a clear vision of future goals, Francesco will be able to lead his team in developing increasingly innovative products and technologies related to natural refrigerants.

• What is your role at Enerblue?
I am responsible for Research and Development, including laboratory management and new product development, from concept to final prototype definition.

• How long have you worked at Enerblue?
I joined the company at the end of 2014 when it was still a small entity with few customers and a largely undeveloped product range, but already with a clear idea that the future was headed in the direction of natural gas heat pumps.
This vision allowed us to develop in a way that I would call exponential, at first facing difficulties and uncertainties but then more decisively thanks, among others, to the arrival of new people who shared and believed in this goal.

• What was your previous working experience?
I have always worked in this area, first as a technical manager at Blue Box, then at Rhoss, gaining different kinds of experience, but always in the technical field. With a constant focus and passion for product, from screw chiller to transcritical CO2 heat pump, going through fan coils and AHUs.

• Are you happy with the company's achievements in recent years?
I believe that an exciting team effort has been made at Enerblue, involving us in a common goal of delivering a cutting-edge product by targeting market niches with the approach of a medium-sized industry. 
Now these niches are proving to be the future of heat pumps, rewarding us for our efforts and putting us in a leading technological position. Over the past few years, the Group has been growing steadily, attracting new forces and skills that will enable us to support growth and maintain the lead we have achieved.

• How did you face and overcome these last pandemic years?
We had some difficult times, especially when the factory had to be closed. Still, we never stopped thinking and working for development, discovering and using the potential of remote work and turning it into an opportunity today.

• What medium/long-term goals did you set for yourselves?
A company wishing to stay in the market must necessarily aim for growth in sales and margins, all of which are necessary for the company’s life and development. But Enerblue has also set goals in terms of sustainability.

From this perspective, the most contributing activity is the development of a product that, beside contributing to environmental sustainability, has the potential to become even more impactful if designed with low-impact refrigerant gases and better efficiencies.
Hence, our goal is to be recognized as leader in the design and production of high-efficiency heat pumps with natural refrigerants, not so much in quantity terms, given the size of the companies operating in this sector, but in quality terms with highly technologically innovative products.

In addition, to be as consistent as possible with our environmental sustainability goal, we are aiming to use expedients in line with this philosophy as much as possible even at work and in our daily lives.

• What processes do you put in place to ensure that employees achieve the company's goals?
The key to achieving goals in the company is to make sure that they are shared by those who must help attain them.
The R&D area where I work is one that provides strong professional stimuli, something that is important to foster as it makes the frustrations and rutine aspects of every job much less oppressive.

• What is the strength of the Enerblue team?
The pivotal element that makes Enerblue strong is the desire to deliver a product with technically differentiating features that are also environmentally sustainable thanks to the use of natural gases.
To date, this goal has been pursued by a small team of people who have worked synergistically over the past years based, among others, on its small size.
Now we are at a turning point in that we need to keep the focus on our goal but with a much more articulated team and this will have to become our strength going forward.

• What color, feeling or adjective best describes your vision for Enerblue? 
Our corporate colors are those that best describe the spirit of Enerblue, which is inextricably linked to product: designed to produce heat (orange) with low environmental impact methods (green).

Our most rewarding feeling is that we have contributed and continue to actively contribute to achieving Enerblue's distinctive vision.