Italian hose maker Thor Group making mark in North America | Rubber News

SAN DIEGO—Thor Group is an Italian-based industrial hose company that has more than six decades of history and a very good idea of what its identity is in the market.

It's a family-owned firm with four manufacturing plants at three sites that are each designed with a specific purpose in mind to satisfy the needs of a variety of markets with in-depth technical solutions using a variety of manufacturing techniques.

Given that its headquarters is near Milan and three of its factories are in Italy, Thor does a good portion of its business in the European market, where it also has three sales branches in Spain and one in the United Kingdom.

But the hose maker also does business around the globe. It has a sales company in Australia that's been in place since 2018, and now the company has set its sights on the larger picture.

As in North America larger.

Officials are banking that distributors will see promise in the value proposition of a smaller firm that can offer high-technical specialty solutions aimed at a variety of industrial market segments.

"The message I'd like to deliver is that Thor is a family-owned group that is managed in a way that it still is looking for contact with people and a distribution chain," Thor Commercial Director Sonia Violatto told Rubber News. "We strongly believe we can grow together.

"Thor has the culture to look for this kind of potential distributor in the North American market to establish a longer relationship."

The company was founded in 1962 as Tubi Thor S.p.A. in Lesmo, near Milan, by Renato Ballerani, a technician of hoses and a chemist.

The firm focused on the production of pipes with steel and textile braiding, along with hydraulic hose. The company was named after Thor, the Norse god of power and strength, and it concentrated initially on the petrol bunkering, steel mill and chemical industries.

With a name like Thor, one might expect a huge multinational corporation. But that's not the case, said Violatto. The company is not small either, but rather exists somewhere in between.

The manufacturer has about 250 employees spread across its various sites, and sales of between $45 million and $50 million per year.

Thor Group also is run by three generations of the Ballerani family. The founder, who turned 92 this year, remains president, and was active in the firm until the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed much of his everyday activity.

His son, Fabio Ballerani, now serves as CEO, and the founder's grandson, Federico Ballerani, is marketing manager.

The youngest Ballerani started work on the production staff.

"It's real important to feel the product that you are manufacturing," Federico Ballerani said during NAHAD's annual convention in San Diego. "I was also involved in the design of hoses, and then moved over to the commercial part of the company."

During the 1970s, the group began to shift gears and hone what would become its blueprint to service its industrial hose customers through laser-focused production sites with separate company names, tied together by the Thor moniker.

"It's a group of companies that can do many products," Violatto said during NAHAD. "But each plant has in-depth knowledge and good skills over time."

The list of industrial market segments that Thor Group supplies includes food and beverage, chemical and pharmaceutical; mine hoses for pleasure boats; hoses for fluid transfer and material handling; tank truck; and a variety of others.

Over the years, its original Tubi Thor factory moved away from producing hydraulic hose, and began manufacturing specialty products with custom designs that offer differentiation in materials, according to Violatto.

Hoses manufactured there primarily are aimed at the food and beverage sector, high-level chemical uses and farm applications.

In 1975, Thor added its Thor Sud S.p.A. factory, located in San Salvo, Italy, so named because sud is the Italian word for south, and the unit is in the southern part of the country.

Production there is conducted using a patented process Thor designed to make up to 61-meter hoses on a rigid mandrel, allowing the firm to make technical products in large volumes because of the automatic production method.

"We have a system of production that was designed by us that is able to produce large quantities," Ballerani said. "We are able to cover all needs and volumes."

Thor built a second facility in San Salvo in 2020 that produces hoses with extruded tubes and braided reinforcement.

"We decided to add the newest plant because we wanted to increase capacity and production," he said. "We were at the limits of the production possibilities of the old plant. ... When we increased the capacity we decided to do braided hoses and extruded tube to increase the range of products that we could offer to the customers."

The final site and manufacturing company—Thor JMS S.a.r.L.—opened in Tunisia in 2009. It was developed to serve utilities markets that require price-sensitive hoses. Ballerani said the products couldn't be made in Italy because of higher labor costs, whereas Tunisia wage rates are lower, allowing those lines to be cost-competitive.

"In the production plants of Thor we are exploring all the methods of making industrial hose," Violatto said. "In each plant we have in-depth knowledge of what we are doing, not only in terms of knowledge of the market where we have to sell the products, but the best and most efficient way to produce them."

With a strong base of business in other parts of the world, Thor Group officials decided to make the firm's mark in North America for the first time. While distributors and end users might not know the company name, Violatto said company officials believe its family-owned pedigree will help it create stronger relationships with potential customers.

"The reason we are looking for new distributors in the North American market is because we think there is some potential for us to grow, but also our confidence is to let our future active distributors grow with us," she said.

How its offerings are structured, she added, makes it attractive to both distributors that cover a wide range of applications, as well as those that are focused on particular niche products.

Thor also has some products that are well-recognized, such as its marine hose line.

"We think with the competencies we have already developed, along with the capability and capacity to develop new products and new design, we can not only take the products for which we are famous into the North American market, but also develop new products," she said.

Thor Group brings rubber compounding capabilities to each of its manufacturing facilities—know-how that traces back to its founder's skills as a chemist.

"We can react faster to the market. We are a company that if we see an opportunity, we can react fast, not only in product design, but also if something more is needed in terms of new compounds or new materials," Violatto said. "This fast reaction is a plus that we can bring over to the North American market in service of potential distributors and customers."

While the pandemic laid bare the potential weaknesses of a global supply chain, the Thor commercial director said it also was a period when everybody learned some lessons.

Companies had to pay attention to purchasing decisions, adjust the flow of operations accordingly and consider different approaches to the market both commercially and in terms of marketing and communications.

"We learned a lot from that time," Violatto said. "Of course it has also been an experience for us to understand how to organize our plants in order to have our material on time and to be close to the market as well, in spite of the fact that we are supplying globally."

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Thor has been preparing for the entrance into North America by developing new products for manufacture at its Tubi Thor and Thor Sud operations. The company has been spending during this period to boost technology as well as output.

"Our strategy is to continue the investments to increase capacity but also the product range to continue to offer new products for our customers to meet their needs," Ballerani said, "with different technologies and different types of products for the market."

Feedback from potential customers has been positive, as customers are interested not only in the products Thor offers, but the potential to have products customized for them.

"The customers are happy when we are able to give a technical reply to them," Ballerani said. "What you are finding with huge companies, they are losing contact between people. (Prospects) are looking for someone who can listen to their needs."

Sometimes it's as simple as being able to reach someone on the phone when a customer needs support. But Thor Group can take that a step or two further given its culture and capabilities.

"The fact that you can support a customer in this way, not only in terms of supply of products, but also in providing the technical know-how for what they need on a daily basis is an easier way to create a stronger relationship because it's based on complete service," Violatto said.

And sometimes that service means lending an ear to understand what a customer really needs. They may call asking for one thing, and then discover they need something completely different.

"They are just copying what they find in the market without thinking there is another, more efficient alternative in the market," she said. "You can find the solution that can last longer and provide more efficiency of the plant or the machine they are running.

"It's a part of the support that I expect from my suppliers in general when I purchase something. Customers are looking for somebody who can guide them."

If Thor Group can prove to be that type of supplier in North America, its name won't be a secret on the continent for much longer.

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