Casnate con Bernate, Italy, Shanghai, China, and Siler City, USA. What all of these places have in common, among other things, is that they are all homes of A.D. Tubi, an advanced manufacturing company that produces stainless steel tubes.
Their Siler City location, which serves as the company’s American headquarters, is in a formerly vacant building on Hamp Stone Road. The company acquired the industrial building in the summer of 2018, and within ten months, was operational with new offices and production lines.
Founded in Italy by Andrea Degano–the A.D. in A.D. Tubi–in the 1970s, the company is now an international enterprise in the ever-growing energy market. What spurred their arrival in the United States was their existing demand from the U.S., previously handled by their Italian operation, and the potential for further growth given the near-constant rate of construction in America.
Now that they’ve acclimated in their new location, A.D. Tubi USA President Craig Sullivan is ready for A.D. Tubi to make itself a known member of the community, but not without earning their place.
“We don’t have word of mouth yet,” Sullivan said. “We don’t have somebody saying ‘Hey, so-and-so works for that company in Siler City, that’s where you need to get a job.’ So it’s been difficult to reach our target audience in terms of our team members just because of the lack of brand equity in the community. But that remains to be seen, it’s my belief that will be and are currently a great company to work for.”
What makes A.D. Tubi stand out, Sullivan says, is the company culture that, like luxury vehicles and fine wines, is imported from Italy.
“The culture of the organization is probably one of the biggest values. It’s lead to the success, it starts obviously with Andrea, but it’s also the unique culture of Italy. The hierarchy is very flat, anyone on that floor can walk up and talk to Andrea at any given moment. Andrea is a big advocate for the wellbeing of his people, the people are the success of the organization, so we invest heavily in our people.”
Driving the organization is community involvement and servant leadership. In the community of their Italian operation, Andrea and A.D. Tubi sponsor the local professional and Paralympic basketball teams, the type of endeavor they plan to translate into Siler City as well.
For Sullivan and Siler City, the arrival of A.D. Tubi and the crossover of cultures is a welcome venture.
“Everywhere from our customer base, our supplier base, our team members, if you have the opportunity to spend some time with our different team members, they all come from very unique backgrounds, no two are alike,” Sullivan said. “I think that is probably the diversity of the industry we work in and the fortunate diversity we have within our team.”
While A.D. Tubi has settled in, they’re not settling. “We have very ambitious plans,” Sullivan said. “Our location in Italy is about 80 people, our goal here is to rival the size of Italy.”
