“Our GFS Large Equipment Paint Booth allowed us to achieve 4 to 6 times as much productivity”

Valme North America
📍 Franksville, WI

Eric Zimmermann has experienced the damaging effects a production bottleneck can have on a business. When Valme North America was looking for finishing equipment for their new Wisconsin facility, he turned to Global Finishing Solutions (GFS) because he needed a paint booth manufacturer with local support that he could trust.

Please introduce your business and tell us your story.

“The Valme Group of companies was founded about 30 years ago in Rogolo, Italy. Today, Valme is the international leader in the design and production of delivery pipes, accessories and equipment for the concrete pumping industry. What differentiates Valme from our competitors is that more than 90 percent of our products are made in-house in our own foundries and forging plants. Our mission is to offer the right material in the right place to ensure our entire range of pipes wears less and more uniformly.”

What services do you offer and what kind of jobs do you usually perform?

“We manufacture customized pipe systems for truck-mounted boom pumps, as well as all necessary components in the concrete pumping industry. Our product line includes heat-treated single-wall pipes, twin-wall pipes, elbows and reducers with chrome carbide inner liners, couplings and shotcrete nozzles. We offer our customers tailormade components for every situation, with a strong focus on product quality and delivery availability. Having all these in-house capabilities enables us to consistently meet delivery times.”

How did you decide on GFS equipment?

“When Valme’s North America facility opened in 2019, we needed a new paint booth. We went with GFS because they are a U.S. manufacturer and because of the outstanding support we received from their distributor, ICAFe, specifically ICAFe’s engineer, Matt Sawinski, and salesman, Tim Koenen. I know I can always reach GFS and ICAFe. They are both located here in Wisconsin, and I know that I can rely on them. As we strive for quality, we believed GFS and ICAFe would be the right partners for us, with equipment we can trust. From Day 1 — from the sales team to the installer and the commissioning team that GFS and ICAFe provided — everything was spot on, and we have not been disappointed.”

How has GFS equipment changed your processes and impacted your business?

“Our Large Equipment Paint Booth from GFS includes recirculating cure mode, which has allowed us to achieve four to six times as much productivity. With my previous employer, the bottleneck was always how to get the parts through the paint station. We had to work double shifts to make that happen. With our new GFS paint booth, we can get the product through on time, in only one shift.”

What is the plan for the future of your business?

“We started with 10 employees at our Franksville location in 2020, and we are doubling our workforce in 2021. With the pandemic hitting, 2020 was a surprise for everyone. It certainly helped that we were considered an essential business. We finished 2020 right on budget, and we didn’t lose any customers. In fact, we gained customers. Now, we are ready to ramp up the production part of our business.

We plan to continue to place a heavy emphasis on the final finish of our products because we want to stand out in the industry. The overall appearance and quality of our products make us stand out. Keeping the focus on appearance and quality is really appreciated by our customers, and we are well-positioned to do that with our new GFS paint booth.”