Demand for its filters for pulmonary ventilators is up 50% from the same period last year, with the life-saving devices in increasingly short supply. “Our plant manager in China is asking me to double production lines because they can’t keep up with the demand,” Scagliarini toldin a phone interview on Friday. “I spoke with a nearby company that produces pulmonary ventilators, and we’re trying to see how to work with them because they’re supplying the Italian civil protection agency.
Founder Grazia Valentini passed day-to-day control of the company to her sons, Massimo and Marco, in 2002. GVS then went on to expand into six more countries — including Japan, China and the U.S. — culminating in the 2011 sale of an 18% stake to Luxembourg-based private equity fund Mandarin Capital Partners for $30.2 million, according to. “We were profitable, and we wanted to find a partner who could teach us the skills and secrets of mergers and acquisitions,” said Scagliarini.
Now, more than half of the company’s revenues come from its healthcare and life sciences division, which includes filters for pulmonary ventilators, but Scagliarini is also looking to expand the company’s health and safety division to capitalize on the demand for biohazard masks.GVS has been involved in the fight against COVID-19 since it emerged, before it began its deadly march across Europe and the rest of the world.