Saras Group: a long history of resilience in Sardinia
The study by European House – Ambrosetti has highlighted the positive impact of the Saras Group and the Sarlux refinery on the development of Sardinia and the national economy.
On November 21st, the conference ‘Evolving to remain at the top of the game’, organized by Saras in collaboration with The European House – Ambrosetti (TEH-A), was held at the Convento San Giuseppe in Cagliari. The event, attended by representatives of the local institutions, by many of the Group’s industrial and commercial partners and by local and national media offered a fruitful and constructive forum for discussion.
Saras Chairman Massimo Moratti welcomed the participants and traced the history of the Group, which couples a constant drive for transformation with deep local roots in Sardinia. Mr Moratti described his recipe for maintaining market leadership, which includes a combination of resilience and enthusiasm, and stressed the importance of strengthening synergy between public authorities and businesses.
Next came TEH-A CEO Valerio De Molli, who presented a policy study on Saras’ contribution to the growth of the Region’s economy.
The analysis covered four key dimensions of value creation: the contribution to economic capital, social capital, intellectual capital and environmental capital, according to a framework developed by Ambrosetti, already applied to many industrial and service corporations.
The study revealed a number of significant positive impacts of Sarlux and the Saras Group on the development of Sardinia and the national economy.
Resilience as a key to success
Then came a round table, hosted by Andrea Bignami of financial news channel Sky TG24, ‘Resilience as a key to success’, and with panellists Francesca Argiolas (Cantine Argiolas), Antonio Angelo Arru (President of Banco di Sardegna), Chiara Di Guardo (Deputy University Rector for Local Development and Innovation), Maria Grazia Piras (Industry Minister of the Sardinia Region) and Dario Scaffardi (CEO of the Saras Group).
The round table offered a productive discussion forum bringing together practitioners from a range of sectors and contexts, on themes such as having a vision and being flexible as key requirements in order to adapt to the constantly changing economic and geopolitical environment.
At the end of the round table, the Customs Agency presented Saras CEO Dario Scaffardi with a plaque of merit in recognition of the company’s full compliance with the law throughout its history.
The closing remarks were given by Francesco Pigliaru, President of the Sardinia Region.
Asked to comment on the event, Dario Scaffardi said:
“Saras is one of the very few independent companies operating successfully in a highly globalised and competitive sector such as refining. To secure our business’ medium and long-term viability, and to continue to generate value and employment, we must remain true to our goal, which has always been to be among the best operators in the world.
To achieve this aim, we must constantly strive to improve our efficiency, also by leveraging on new technologies and innovation. Digitisation will play a key role in the traditional refining sector too, but it is an enabling factor that requires a solid knowledge and expertise base in order to be fully exploited”.
Above: some snapshots and highlights from the event,
to the right: the TV report on the event
Saras’ value for local economic growth
In summary, the main findings of the study presented by The European House – Ambrosetti:
ECONOMIC CAPITAL
- The 12th industrial group in Italy, the 3rd oil and gas group by turnover (€ 7.7 billion)
- The largest company in Sardinia
- The largest refinery in Italy by volume of oil refined
- € 4.4 billion of exports worldwide, equal to 82% of Sardinia’s total exports
- € 800 million of investment in the period 2018-2021 (+40%), with an increasing focus on safety, the environment and innovation
- € 474 million of direct, indirect and induced activation of supply chains in Sardinia
- € 456 million of contribution to the Regional government’s revenues (5% of the budget of the Sardinia Region)
ENVIRONMENTAL CAPITAL
- The first refinery in Italy to obtain the IEA (Integrated Environmental Authorisation) and to join the voluntary EMAS scheme in 2008
- Over the past 4 years, investment of more than € 120 million in environmental protection and safety (+24% in 2017 compared to 2016)
- More than € 2 million in saved social costs in one year thanks to the reduction of CO2 emissions (-2% +3% in Italy)
- The largest desalination plant in the Mediterranean (37.4% of the water used by our industrial facility is desalinated seawater)
SOCIAL CAPITAL
- About 2000 employees (+11% in the period 2012-2015 vs. a national loss of -5.5% jobs in Italy’s manufacturing sector)
- 1450 direct jobs in Sardinia, with an employment multiplier of 2.
- Highly trained, specialised workers, with salaries in Sardinia 125% higher than the Region’s average, generating € 20 million of additional consumption
- 98.3% of employees on permanent contracts (vs. Italy’s average of 88.2%)
- Worker injury rate of 4.6 per 1,000 employees (-19% from 2016), vs. the national industry average of 7.1 and the national average for the manufacturing sector of 23.9
INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
- 23% of workers are university graduates (vs. Italy’s average of 13.0%). Of these, 77% hold a degree in technical-scientific subjects (against Italy’s average of 41%)
- Current digital transformation project #digitalSaras: € 50 million of investment with the aim of implementing advanced digital applications in industry (10 projects in the industrialisation phase)
- Collaborations and synergies with universities and schools to support the training of specialized personnel.
