Camping Trade World – Issue 08

SCALABROS COMPANY PROFILE
Adversity into opportunity:
the Scalabros story
With a background in producing high-quality products for buses and coaches, Italian
firm Scalabros is now showing what it can do for the RV market with roller blinds,
sun visors and more. Could this customer-focused firm become your next supplier?
A
■fter working for
several years as export
sales managers in the
commercial and industrial
vehicle markets, brothers
Benedetto and Giovanni
Scalabrini (pictured, right)
decided they wanted to set-up
on their own. They founded
Scalabros as a representation
company in 2008… just as the
financial crisis struck.
“We say that we are a
company born during a crisis
and we kept growing through
32 | www.campingtradeworld.com
several other crises,” explains
Benedetto. After the financial
crash of 2008, Scalabros decided
to begin manufacturing its
own rollerblinds and escape
roof-hatches, sun-visors and
led-lighting, just in time for the
European sovereign debt crisis
of 2012. Despite these hurdles,
and the more recent ones such
as the Covid-19 pandemic and
the war in Ukraine, Scalabros
has continued to grow at a pace
of 15 to 20 per cent per year.
Benedetto says: “Even in
2020 when our usual business
(very much linked to tourism)
dropped by 50 per cent, we
managed to end the year with
a 50 per cent up thanks to
our flexibility: in fact we were
extremely quick in adapting our
machinery into face-masks and
hospital gowns production. 2021
was probably the most difficult
year because coach production
hadn’t picked up yet and the
business of the face-masks and
gowns had gone already.” In
2022, it’s so far so good for the