Difesa Servizi, CEO Recchia: ‘Covid does not stop 10 years of growth. New strategic industrial asset ‘

“The company was founded in 2011 and has always been in profit over the years. Over time, the results of the financial statements have grown to the most consistent leap forward with the 2020 budget. This is an important result, especially because it was achieved in a complicated year like that of Covid: we have confirmed all traditional assets, and we have registered a growth in support activities for the defense industry, which sees the company supporting the national industry in the sector “. This is what Fausto Recchia, managing director of Difesa Servizi, a company said in an interview with Adnkronos for shares with sole shareholder the Ministry of Defense, which this year celebrates ten years of activity and which represents a unique model in the entire Public Administration. The 2020 budget closed with 51.3 million euros in turnover, the value of production went from around 30.4 million euros in 2019 to around 53.4 million euros, with an increase of 23 million or + 76%. ion of brands, the real estate asset and that of renewable energy, in recent years many others have been added, including the one that sees Difesa Servizi working alongside Italian companies in the sector, through support activities in the field of education and training aimed, in in particular, to the foreign armed forces.Difesa Servizi, on behalf of the Italian Armed Forces, negotiates with the main defense companies, Leonardo rather than Fincantieri, training and training packages, mainly aimed at foreign military personnel, which operate on vehicles produced by our industry. “Just to give an example, I am thinking of the Polish pilots trained by the Italian Air Force on aircraft produced by Leonardo. It was the first of many contracts of this nature that have since followed. This collaboration – explains Recchia – helps our national industry. to be increasingly competitive on the markets, providing an added value that is given by the excellence and professionalism of the Italian Armed Forces, excellence and professionalism recognized in the world. As far as we are concerned, this asset in the last year, has weighed for approximately 50% of the turnover “. The company makes available to the Armed Forces almost all of the proceeds it generates, made on the basis of agreements stipulated with them. Since 2011, the value of the resources reported to all the affiliated defense structures has been around 180 million euros. Another sector that Difesa Servizi is looking at with interest is that of space and aerospace, an activity that represented 11% of revenues in the last budget. “Together with the Armed Forces, we have started a reflection on possible prospective activities, also in collaboration with companies in the sector”, underlines Recchia, recalling the agreements signed for the sale of satellite images. The ‘historical’ asset, the management of brands, is also doing well. of the Armed Forces, which brought in the latest balance sheet 8.3% of revenues equal to about 4.5 million but which inevitably suffered the impact of Covid in 2020. To these must be added the activities on photovoltaics, through the use in concession of military sites where it is possible to install solar panels; and the services of the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy for the sale of maps. The operating profit in 2020 was approximately 3.3 million euros per compared to approximately 1.8 million euros in 2019, over 83% more than the previous year. “The company represents a virtuous example in the management and enhancement of public affairs. It, in fact, lives on its own resources found entirely from Wed not dependent, therefore, on public funding. Indeed – adds Fausto Recchia – our mission is to generate additional resources from the market to the budget of the Armed Forces and make them available to the various defense structures ”. In the last year, resources were generated to be returned to the availability of the Defense, for a value of 46 million euros, 46% more than last year. “Since 2011, the results achieved by the company have made it possible to make around 180 million euros available to the armed forces”, underlines Recchia. To close the numbers, Recchia underlines how the Minister of Defense, Lorenzo Guerini, has accepted and supported with conviction, the proposal of the Board of Directors of the company to extinguish part of the profits of the last two years, for a value equal to 2.5 million euro, to military health, to support the extraordinary daily work to combat the pandemic. From the brands to the promotional initiatives implemented up to the real estate enhancement of the Defense assets, there are many news. “We exclusively manage, for commercial purposes, the enhancement of all the brands and emblems of the armed forces, the Navy, the Army, the Air Force and the Carabinieri. The State Police also took an interest in our model and, following a protocol in agreement between the two ministries, Interior and Defense, we signed an agreement with the State Police for the management of their brand, and we are proud of it. I add that the Minister of Defense informed me that, in recent days, the Minister of ‘Interno, prefect Lamorgese, asked to be able to extend the aforementioned agreement to the brands of the Fire Brigade “, underlines Recchia announcing that the in-house company of the Ministry of Defense is working to sign an agreement aimed at managing the brand of the Fire Brigade. . “In the same way, the Customs Agency has asked us to manage the brand and the draft protocol is being examined by the Ministry of Defense”, continues the CEO of Difesa Servizi . For more than ten years now, the brands of the Armed Forces, through concessions to licensees, have been on the market with objects, clothing, food, toys, watches, modeling and publishing. “We now have new projects that we intend to implement to further support and promote our brands in collaboration with licensees”, observes Recchia. With this in mind, for example, the Navy Nastro Rosa Tour 2021, a sailing tour organized by Difesa Servizi SpA and Ssi Sport & Events, in partnership with the Navy, and with the support of the Italian Sailing Federation and Gazzetta dello Sport, which will start from Genoa on 27 August and will end in Venice on 26 September. A challenge in eight stages which will see national and international teams compete in regattas in the three sailing disciplines (offshore, inshore and boards) and a traveling village open to the public where you can discover all the details of the competition, the partners. “We promote the Marina Militare brand through sailing, it is a appointment that aims to become annual “, explains Recchia explaining that the Giro d’Italia a Vela will also be valid as a regatta field for the assignment of the title he is the champion of Europe and the world champion of double mixed offshore, the new class that will compete in the Paris Olympics in 2024. A journey along the Italian coasts and lighthouses, which are at the center of another project dear to Difesa Servizi. “Difesa Servizi deals with the real estate enhancement of those assets that remain in the ownership of the Defense. The ‘Fari project’ has seen, and still sees, the virtuous coordination between many administrations, as part of the broader project ‘Valore Paese Italia ‘, and it represented a qualifying step for us “, explains Recchia a few weeks after the closing of the fourth call promoted by Difesa Servizi SpA and Agenzia del Demanio, as part of the wider project” Valore Paese Italia Fari “born in 2015, the concession of other ‘sentinels of the sea’ to be exploited in a tourist-receptive key. Offers arrived for the lighthouses of Capel Rosso on the Island of Giannutri (Grosseto), of Capo Rizzuto on the Island of Capo Rizzuto (Crotone), of Capo Rossello in Realmonte (Agrigento), Caderini of Syracuse, of Punta Stilo in Monasterace ( Reggio Calabria) and Capo Rasocolmo in Messina. Six other lighthouses, therefore, will be able to be reborn to a new life by transforming themselves into a hotel for fabulous stays by the sea, open to all. Now managed remotely, the lighthouses still perform an important signaling function while the buildings that once were the lighthouse keepers can be reborn to new life. “Through the enhancement of these properties that are located in enchanting places, assets of the country’s public heritage have been recovered, subtracting them from degradation, and making them usable for local communities and for all citizens”, explains Recchia, adding that in these days the concession contract for the Ponza lighthouse has been signed. Several lighthouses of the Navy or the State Property have already been recovered and reborn as hotels where it is possible to book exclusive stays. Among these, just to name a few, the Fenaio lighthouse hotel set on a rock on the northern tip of the Giglio Island, or the Capospartivento lighthouse on a cliff overlooking the sea. From sports clubs to airport grounds, lighthouses are not the only defense properties that can be enhanced. “The protocol signed by the ministries of defense and culture for the enhancement of military museums has recently been renewed. Together with the ministry of culture, we promote some itineraries, such as that of memory, on the places of the First World War”, recalls Defense Services underlining how military museums can be promoted together with the national museum system and tourist circuits of the beautiful country.