The Arocs in Calcestruzzi Irpini's limestone quarry

The entrepreneurial activity of the Sarno family began underground, or to be more precise, inside a hill in the Salza Irpina municipality of the Avellino province. In the 1950s, Silvio Sarno was granted a concession allowing him to mine a large cache of limestone with a high degree of purity, making it suitable for use in the construction industry. The entrepreneur then immediately began to complement his mining operations with business in the construction and road-building sectors.

In the following decade, his son Nicola expanded the company and introduced the manufacture of ready-to-use concrete. The opening of additional production facilities in Serino, Mercogliano and the more remote locations of Merigliano (in the vicinity of Naples) as well as Solofra and Ischiano (near Salerno) strongly contributed to this expansion. The third generation, represented by Silvio and Valentina, finally expanded operations to include the production of bituminous binders.

– Silvio Sarno, sole managing director and co-owner of Calcestruzzi Irpini

Quality is also a primary concern when it comes to transportation, one of the company's main activities. Calcestruzzi Irpini supplies the entire region of Campania with aggregates, concrete and bituminous binders. For half of the trips, the company uses its own commercial vehicle fleet comprising 15 tipper trucks and 35 concrete mixers. "We select vehicles based on the specific requirements that reflect the values of our company," explains Sarno. "The first requirement is low fuel consumption in order to keep transportation costs low, of course. The second requirement is the amount of exhaust emissions as this is a defining element for the certification process. An additional economic consideration is the residual value of a vehicle at the end of its utilisation cycle in our company, which is five years for a tipper truck and eight years for a concrete mixer. Finally, we also pay attention to the image, which contributes to the quality perceived by our customers."

Mercedes-Benz, whose star is present on most of the company's vehicles, meets all these requirements to the full. "The Actros and Arocs offer a large degree of reliability, which we maximise using a scheduled maintenance programme. Thanks to FleetBoard, which also helps us evaluate our drivers' style of driving, the consumption figures are kept under control."

After all, it's also the people behind the wheel that are an important quality factor for Calcestruzzi Irpini. "We offer continual further training to them. Using the data collected by FleetBoard, we regularly schedule meetings where we discuss driver performance and give drivers the opportunity to have a professional exchange with one another. In addition, we make use of the in-company courses organised by Mercedes-Benz, which help us to utilise our vehicles in a more efficient manner. In these cases, we conduct an analysis before and after the training sessions in order to evaluate the progress that's been made. It's my desire for the participants to bring their full competence to the table in such courses because. These are highly professional employees who also contribute to their colleagues' professional development."

Contact information:

Silvio Sarno, Calcestruzzi Irpini
Tel. no.: + (39) 825/62 65 74
Email: info@irpiniacalcestruzzi.it

Photos: Michele Latorre