Pierluigi Ghirelli elected chairman of Ceramicolor

Federchimica Ceramicolor, the Italian association of ceramic colour and metal oxide producers, elected its new chairman during the annual meeting.

The new chairman of Ceramicolor, the Federchimica-affiliated trade association representing ceramic colour and metal oxide producers, was elected unanimously during the annual meeting held on 3 May. Taking up the post is Pierluigi Ghirelli, a manager with extensive experience in the ceramic sector as Managing Director of ZS Ceramco and ZS Asian (the group’s Indonesian branch) and Global Tile Sector Manager for the entire Zschimmer & Schwarz Group.

The association’s governing bodies have also been renewed, with Claudio Casolari (Metco) and Daniele Bandiera (Vetriceramici) elected as Vice Chairmen.

“I am truly honoured to have been elected Chairman of an association that has grown enormously in recent years and has taken up many new challenges thanks to the wide-ranging expertise of its members. I would first of all like to thank the team I have at my side, consisting of technically skilled and highly motivated entrepreneurs and managers,” says Ghirelli. “The crisis in our sector and the pandemic over the past year have been truly challenging. We have responded by reinventing ourselves in terms of both our products and our processes.”

By making significant investments in R&D, the industry aims to develop increasingly specialist and environmentally-friendly products that will enable ceramic manufacturers to achieve the highest aesthetic and technological standards.

Ghirelli will focus in particular on the relationship between the worlds of education and business. “Training new technical and management professionals is the real challenge for the future,” he says.

Ceramicolor represents 16 Italian companies with a turnover in excess of 400 million euros operating in the sectors of frits and glazes, colours and auxiliaries for ceramic and metals, inorganic pigments and metal oxides.

“The national association that I now have the honour of leading is made up of the industry’s top companies, which have always played a very important role in reaffirming the Italian spirit and aesthetic quality of ceramic products in close cooperation with other companies operating in the sector,” continues Ghirelli. “I will carry on the work of my predecessor at the association and focus on promoting cooperation throughout the supply chain as the basis for the further development of our world-leading industry.”