“Ice making is our passion”: an interview with Brema’s Alessandro Maroli
BREMA has been specialising in ice making for over 30 years. The company was founded by Cesare Maroli near Milan in 1985 and over the years has continued to design and manufacture commercial ice maker equipment to the highest quality standards, using the best materials, practices and the most advanced technologies.
We caught up with Alessandro Maroli, Sales Manager and son of the company founder to discuss what sets BREMA apart and how the family’s dedication and passion for ice has encouraged the business to grow into a globally leading supplier.
Tell us about BREMA and the markets that you service?
Ice making is our passion. We are constantly developing new solutions that meet our customer’s ice making needs even better.
The BREMA product range consists of ice makers for a wide variety of markets, including hotels, restaurants, fast food outlets, bars, fish markets, supermarkets, medical applications and industry.
Besides standard, compact ice cubes that cool without diluting, we also produce other types such as fast ice which adapts to any shape of glass, granular flakes which are ideal for exhibiting and presenting foods and cold flakes which are ideal for processing, transporting and preserving foods.
How any staff does Brema employ?
We employ 105 staff, and they are all very hard working and committed staff. It is a family business and my mother, father, wife and I are all very involved. My family and I spend a lot of time in the Research and Development (R&D) department it’s an integral part of our business.
Why is the Research and Development department such an integral part of the business?
We cannot always compete on price but we can control the quality of our machines, therefore we are very hands on in this process. The truth is that through a bad production you we ruin a good project, therefore R&D is a central part of our operation.
BREMA ice machines have an impressive failure rate of less than 1%. How do you achieve such manufacturing quality?
Quality is always our first priority as we strive for complete customer satisfaction. The manufacturing process we use consists of only the highest-quality materials and we carefully monitor the process by means of computerized inspection systems. Before delivery, every single ice machine is put through meticulous functional tests to ensure maximum reliability.
We have a testing processes that is unique to BREMA; I am very sure that we are the only company in the world to be using this process. It involves robots testing machines in a controlled atmosphere containing helium and nitrogen. During the testing the refrigeration circuit is pressurised to ensure its integrity.
Every Brema machine has its own history. During the production stage we check and record the processes the machines are subjected to. The results are collected and entered into a single document, to guarantee complete traceability of all installed components and tests performed. After an accurate functional check, all machines leave the BREMA factories with their own passport that allows us to follow them all over the world.
Read more great interviews like this in our upcoming issue of FrontBurner Magazine! Click here to learn more. Contact us for any enquiries regarding commercial kitchen equipment.