Hector Fratty

Massimo Bravin was born in Milano in 1958. After finishing at the SDA Bocconi School of Management, he started in 1984 at Arthur Andersen; six years later he joined Bendix-AlliedSignal as Financial Director and CFO of their automotive business in Europe. When that activity was sold in 1998, he joined Bacardi/Martini as General Manager Italy before moving to Magneti Marelli in 2000 as CFO and in 2003 as President and CEO of Automotive Lighting, at that time a joint venture with R. Bosch, until 2006.

DVN: Can you tell us more about yourself and your job at Automotive Lighting?
Massimo Bravin: I am proud to have succeeded turning over the activity and achieving a double digit positive result versus a big loss when I arrived. I also built a solid business portfolio and launched Turkey, Mexico and Brazil plants. But the thing I’m most proud of is the successful integration between Bosch, Magneti Marelli and Seima employees creating a common vision and spirit. Part of this process was a strong change in management integrating new professionals with solid experience who shared a common vision. Four years after leaving Marelli, I started to work again in the lighting industry with Olsa, first as a consultant mainly to set up the JV with Murakami Corporation in China, and then in March 2011 I became CEO of Olsa.

DVN: Tell us about Olsa–the company, sales, employees, and customers.
M.B.: Olsa’s 2011 sales of products are around €130m with a little more than 1,000 employees. The HQ is is in Rivoli (Turin) while the plants are in Moncalieri, Italy, in Brazil, Poland, and Mexico and China since 2011. About the customers, we are proud to have most of the generalist car makers as customers, and also premium car makers including Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Maserati. Headquarters, development and laboratories are regrouped in the Rivoli plant.

DVN: Tell us about your products.
M.B.: Olsa develop and produce rear lamps, side repeaters, and interior lighting.

DVN: What is the history of Olsa?
M.B.: Olsa were established in 1947 as a family company in Rivoli close to Turin, Italy. They were originally engaged in the production of plate-stamped components for the automobile industry. In 1958, they turned into a corporation, entering also in the manufacturing of rear lights and dome lamps for commercial vehicles.

In the 1990s a renovation and enlarging program is started and leads to a complete re-organization of production processes and to the modernisation of equipment.