Di.Pa. Sport at Rematec Amsterdam 2023: remanufactured parts on demand thanks to a warehouse of wonders

Cristian Gherardi, owner of Di.Pa. Sport presents his Company and explains what is the added value of his Company in terms of remanufacturing and circular economy.

What prompted Di.Pa. Sport to choose Rematec Amsterdam 2023 to present its company?

We have chosen to participate once again, this is the fifth time, in the most important fair about remanufacturing. It is very important for us to be able to share our passion and our work with other companies and compare ourselves with them in the field of remanufacturing.

What is Di.Pa. Sport technological and commercial strategy in the field of remanufacturing?

We strive to overhaul the greatest number of parts at the highest quality and offer them to our customers. We have a well-established market in Italy, with about a hundred operators, and our job is to serve spare parts dealers and workshops.

Circular economy is the key concept. How can your company be considered an added value both for customers and the environment?

We have always believed in it; for over more than twenty years, we have been involved in remanufacturing and, consequently, in the circular economy. We strongly believe in the excellence of regenerated parts, even compared to new ones, with the added value of equal quality, lower cost for the customer, and a smaller environmental impact. Our strength lies in the know-how we have developed over more than twenty years. We are against waste; that's why, from our perspective, expert regeneration is the best method for everyone—customers, companies, and the environment! The parts we most commonly remanufacture include steering components, ABS systems, engine control units, and suspensions.

The warehouse of wonders

Our market is predominantly in Italy, with only 10% directed towards foreign customers. Our strength lies in having approximately 25 thousand pre-remanufactured parts ready in stock, ready to be shipped on demand. These are massive automated warehouses on which we have made significant investments, containing all the major regenerated parts demanded by the market and ready to meet requests. They cost up to double compared to the competition, but our added value is the speed of delivery and availability. We proactively send the requested regenerated part, and it is then the responsibility of the spare parts dealer or requesting workshop to promptly send us the part that needed regeneration. Once regenerated, it will be stored in the warehouse for the next customer. In this process, however, we have a 10% risk that, once the regenerated part is sold and delivered, we may receive a part that is too faulty to be regenerated. This results in the loss of profit from the sale of the part, although we always manage to salvage some components of the central part, the core, benefiting the circular economy. Unfortunately, this mechanism does not work as effectively in the foreign market. We face many challenges in getting the part to be regenerated sent to us in a timely manner, despite our proactive and early dispatch of the requested part.

How does Di.Pa. Sport envision its own future and that of remanufacturing?

At least for the next years, we anticipate a very prosperous period for remanufacturing. Considering the 2035 ban on the sale of Internal Combustion Vehicles (ICVs) in Europe, if today one hundred ICVs are built, resulting in one hundred parts making up the car, along with an additional twenty spare parts, from 2035 onwards, when they will no longer be manufactured, and neither will the replacement parts, remanufacturing will be the only option for maintaining these cars! The transition to electric vehicles is still a forced move, happening too quickly, without considering that the economic and market reality of countries like Norway and Denmark, for instance, where are almost all electric cars, is quite different from that of other European countries such as Italy, Spain, and France. These countries are lagging behind in the transition due to economic, political, bureaucratic, and structural reasons. The most discordant note in all of this is the European requirement for everyone to drive an electric car, without considering other forms of alternative fuels and power sources. Everything to reduce pollution from NOx and CO2 production. What about other continents, where industries deliberately use fossil fuel factories for the production of electric cars and their components (as seen in China, India, etc.)?
We say either all or none!

What are the upcoming events?

We will be attending Rematec Asia (August 2024) and Rematec Amsterdam (April 2025).