‘Opportunity USA’ for Italian lighting specialist

Equipment suppliers at Bauma may have been fixated on US tariffs and the potential difficulties of exporting to the world’s biggest construction equipment market, but not everyone was seeing it that way. Trime srl, the Italian lighting tower and portable power OEM, views the US as its biggest potential growth market, whatever happens with tariffs.

“We’re not too worried about it”, said Andrea Fontanella, the founder and CEO of Trime, speaking to IRN at Bauma. He prefers to view the country as simply the largest lighting tower market in the world, and one where it still has enormous scope for growth.

Trime, based in Cassinetta di Lugagnano in the north of Italy, has successfully built a €140 million revenue business selling mainly to export markets in Europe and Australia - annual sales in the UK alone are close to €30 million - and also in North America where it has a subsidiary.

“The US is the growth opportunity, in our opinion”, said Fontanella, “In Europe, we have a market share [in lighting towers] of more than 50% - the UK is like our ‘home’ market - so it is more difficult to grow. In the US we are seeing more and more interest in our products.”

Trime’s T-Zero Pro battery powered lighting tower, on show at the company’s stand at Bauma. (Photo: IRN)

The company specialises in equipment that helps companies save on fuel use and energy, with a range of battery, solar and hybrid powered units.

At Bauma, for example, it was showing its new T-Zero Pro lighting tower powered by small battery packs which can easily be removed and recharged with a dedicated charging unit.

“It’s about return on investment and saving energy”, said Fontanella, “That’s the model we like.”

He said the US was “the land of opportunity for us...We want to hit revenues of around $100 million within five years.”

That would be a significant portion of a market that Trime values at between $400 million and $500 million, annually.

The company also has a fast-growing power products division, which produces gensets and battery energy storage units.

“Like our lighting towers, we go for niche sectors”, said Fontanella, “70% of our power business is for unconventional gensets, hybrid mainly. With traditional gensets, there are many players.”