In the pole position of safety

SABELT I PROFILE

A pioneer of automotive safety, Italian manufacturer of premium car seats and seatbelts Sabelt is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Founded in 1972, the company has its pedigree rooted in motorsport, with its cuttingedge safety solutions being used across the sport – before being adapted for road applications – and even aerospace. Jordan Yallop spoke to Massimiliano Marsiaj, Vice Chairman and Business Development Manager at Sabelt to find out more.

Sabelt is a company with decades of experience in automotive safety and seat manufacture built upon four pillars of success: technology, service, lightweight and safety. The company’s pioneering technology graces the biggest names in the automotive and motorsport worlds and is even present in the cuttingedge aerospace industry.

It is easy to see that Sabelt has its eye on the best quality on the market when you consider that seven out of ten Formula One teams buy their seat belts from Sabelt.

With the company celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Massimiliano Marsiaj, Vice Chairman and Business Development Manager at Sabelt, was keen to highlight how the industry has evolved during this time.

“The industry has developed greatly in the past 50 years,” he began. “It started as a local industry; each country would have their own car manufacturers, and their own range of suppliers to produce the cars. My father is a huge fan of the UK and we started with a licence from a UK based company. He used to go regularly to the UK and have a few suppliers there who could licence the technology, sell components, and then he would assemble them in Italy.

SABELT I PROFILE

“This is a huge difference between then and now. Today we are in a global economy and it is definitely a different approach to business when compared to 50 years ago; but one common ground is that the automotive business has always been a technology driven business.”

Family first

A big day requires big plans, and in a traditional family-centric way, the company is planning a day of festivities for the whole Sabelt family – some 250 strong.

“We are thinking of doing a family day for our employees, invite them with their families, and have a day of fun,” revealed Mr Marsiaj. “We will welcome all of our employees to our headquarters here in Turin. Spending the day together cele-

SABELT I PROFILE

brating, maybe have some cars around with some good drinks and some good food to celebrate a proper birthday,” smiled Mr Marsiaj.

“It’s a big year, so it’s important to remember the company was founded by my father, who’s still the CEO, and my uncle. We are a family run business, with the second generation – my brother and I – also here. We are proud to be in this industry, we are always investing and learning.”

A weighty decision

Sabelt has expanded its range by also dedicating itself to high-end sports road car accessories and niche markets, becoming the European leader in the development and production of three different businesses: racing, OEM (original equipment manufacturing) seating, and belts for special applications.

Over the five decades, the progress of automotive technology has required safety equipment to evolve alongside it to stay at optimum performance. This necessity has caused Sabelt to evolve in-line with the market. For instance, the compulsory nature of seatbelts in all vehicles brought about new production systems. This has made it possible for Sabelt to be a pioneer of automotive safety in the most demanding of circumstances, such as F1.

Mr Marsiaj said high-spec technology eventually filters down to road users. In light of this, Sabelt has dedicated itself to producing seats for high-end manufacturers and specialist markets.

“Our turnover is 90% based on seats alone,” he said. “Sabelt produces seats for road use cars; our main customers are Ferrari and McLaren. In fact, 100% of all McLaren cars produced in the UK are equipped with Sabelt seats. Many of our latest, main investments are based on seats and related technology. The investments are to increase our competitive advantage in the weight reduction of seats.

On the OEM front, products are designed and created exclusively by Sabelt in collaboration with external design studios and our clients, the car makers. Our tailor-made production allows us to create customized prod-

ucts, designed according to the needs of the car manufacturers and the final customers.

Our main partners are: Ferrari, McLaren, Alpine, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Maserati and Aston Martin.

“Our seats are mainly made of both metal and composite parts. There are two main differing composites on the market, one is fibreglass and the other is carbon fibre. However, one of the big trends we are investing in is the sustainability of our products, because carbon fibre and fibreglass are not easy to recycle.

“We are developing a new range of sustainable products called Carbogreen. We are keeping an eye on the environment and being friendly towards our future generations. This is why we’re working a lot on lightweight sustainable products,” He added.

As part of the company’s mission to gear up for the electric revolution, the Carbogreen project, involving 40 technicians, is seeing Sabelt design several products that not only fit with the specific construction and structural characteristics of battery-powered cars, but also support the eco-friendly nature of the vehicles by incorporating sustainable materials and solutions.

Due to the size and weight of the batteries in electric vehicles, equipment, including that manufactured by Sabelt, needs to be redesigned to suit. Also working to a remit of high recyclability, (which is currently not offered by the market), Sabelt has a longterm goal of applying these materials into other products in its portfolio.

Investing in innovation

Always at the forefront of innovation, Sabelt invests 8% of its annual turnover on research and development, which is conducted through the company’s in-house laboratory. This laboratory is at the heart of the company’s efforts towards sustainability.

One such notable innovation emerged from the company’s special application division, and took the form of a new lightweight retaining system for NASA’s cargo on supply

missions to the ISS. Sabelt was able to cut the weight of the previously used system in half, going from 200kg to 100kg – this mammoth effort ended up saving NASA $5 million per flight in fuel costs.

Mr Marsiaj said: “We have succeeded in the market thanks to our technology and bringing new innovations in the market. We actually verticalized a lot which is a big request since we are in the automotive industry, and it is challenging due to standards of quality and price. We have the plant dedicated for that, but we produce only part of our production in-house, relying on key suppliers and partners for other components.”

Sabelt is currently investing in three areas. First, it has acquired more land around its facilities, to increase its existing production capabilities; the second avenue of investment is in sustainability. The third is the expansion of additional markets. “For example space, aviation, military and defence are some applications we’re looking to expand into,” he revealed.

“A few years ago, we heard in the markets people saying small is beautiful, but we believe that is no longer true. In a global economy, it’s hard to succeed by staying small. Today, it’s important to become global and still be beautiful. At Sabelt our objective is to grow, and this growth may be through acquisitions or internal growth.”

Closer to the customer

When speaking of the future of Sabelt, Mr Marsiaj said that one of the main goals that the company has is to increase its reach by getting closer to its clients and diversifying its customer base. While he admitted that the main markets are that of Europe, he certainly does not discount the US or Asia as a direction to further expand into in the future.

“This direction of being closer to the customers is so important, it is our bread and butter and the reason for this type of expansion is security. Our customers do not accept small suppliers. When you’re larger, you’re stronger and customers at that stage will give you even more business,” he concluded. n