Looking for ironing pads, washer window gaskets or other indispensable modern laundry accessories? The answer will always come from the brand made by a company that, between its store-warehouse in Milan and factory in Padua, markets 14,000 products, over half of which were invented and made in house.
Hence we start to understand why a company like A13 is “always” at the center of the laundry market.
The A13 name in itself is prophetic as it also belongs to the Padua-Bologna expressway, which lies in the geographical “center” of “made in Italy”.
As we write, A13 shipped a pallet of electrovalves to Scandinavia. Tomorrow ironing pads and covers will be shipped to Australia, together with round washer window gaskets ordered just today from Argentina.
Global routes that in their own way remind us of a popular American song “Go West, young man”. In fact these days, if we were to paraphrase, the answer as to where exactly a laundry/ironing company can get anything it needs would be “Go to A13, 
young man”. That means a 14,000 product “catalog”, 8,000 of which are made in house, and 6,000 are resold at extremely competitive prices established according to rigorous marketing strategies.
From this, we can understand how and why A13 is the 21st century version of the mythical Far West of 200 years ago; it is the ideal “solution” for all issues pertaining to ironing accessories and replacement parts for machines generally found within today’s laundries. To believe it, just flip though each of the hundred plus pages of an A13 product catalog. It is akin to a laundry “bible”, where operators can find all the answers they need on padding, steam distribution devices, coverings, liners, jackets, shoes, electric valves, fuses, “guns”, pressure gauges, micro switches, gaskets, bearings, springs, temperature regulators, insulating covers, pressure switches and …
We have to stop here, otherwise it would take at least one full page of Detergo to list the products in the A13 catalog, and “sum” up what it stands for today in terms of replacement parts, accessories, the latest and most competitive machines on the market as gauged by the standard of absolute excellence.
The hefty size and encyclopedic wealth of products in the catalog are also explained by the three facilities owned by the company, which was founded in the early ’80.
The historical headquarters in Milan, elegant and always fully stocked, include a retail store and warehouse in via Giulio Venini 57, a few steps away from the Pasteur metro station.
The Legnaro location, in the province of Padua, houses the A13 factory. This extremely creative and flexible manufacturing environment is readily adaptable to fulfill the demands of a continuously evolving market.
Lastly, there is the San Giovanni in Persiceto facility in the province of Bologna. This sales branch is at the centre of Emilia, a region with historical ties to laundry machinery.
Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia. For thirty years A13 has accompanied the history of a core industrial sector for the Italian economy. Nor could it be otherwise, considering that A13 is the brainchild of Giuseppe Conti, who back in the ’80 was a young go-getter and export sales manager for Pony, a leading brand of industrial ironing machines. The factory in Milan has always looked at the evolution of ironing in terms of its being a global supply chain of companies, machines, and trade synergies.
The best of “made in Italy”, intended as industrial manufacturing and constantly updated global ironing market knowledge are the premises upon which Giuseppe Conti conceived and founded A13. “Even back then – says Mr. Conti – you could tell that this sector was bound to undergo irreversible changes. In Italy a sure sign was that skilled women who ironed garments part-time for “quick cleaning” neighborhood laundries, nicknamed “Maria”, were rapidly disappearing 
and being replaced by ironing systems increasingly based on computerized and automated production processes. It seemed obvious that such a radical transformation would lead, or better yet, require someone to step in and answer the ever more persistent and diversified market demand for technology and services. And that’s how A13 was conceived”.
A “conception” to be celebrated, considering that the brainchild grew to achieve the level of excellence by which it is universally recognized today also thanks to the founder’s son and marketing manager, Stefano Conti. Prestige the company gained in the field by its extraordinary commercial versatility and an exquisitely unique, globally unrivaled products portfolio.
We talk about A13 as an entity whose strength lies in its constantly fueled aptitude to find itself “at the center of the market”. A phrase that cannot be reduced to a slogan, because its truth is demonstrated on any given working day.
“On one hand – says Giuseppe Conti – we have thousands of customers scattered across five continents. These same machine manufacturers and resellers can log into our system, check our inventory which is updated twice a day, and order whatever they need to support different companies in their own territory”. “On the other hand, we have manufacturers constantly asking for updates and upgrades, and for all sorts of reasons. It could be because they just launched their ironing machines on a Japanese market that requires specific finishes, or because they identified new accessories by which to score a leadership position in South American markets. What is truly important is knowing how to promptly and creatively meet every request, no matter how foolish or far-fetched it may seem”.
In reality the lab within the Legnaro factory is perfectly set up to transform these daily requests into viable working solutions thanks to highly skilled staff as well as impressive array of technological equipment. This allows A13 to firmly hold its position at the center of the market.
There are plenty of reminders to this effect, from ironing pads destined for Eastern Europe to resistors ordered from South-East Asia, “prontotop” ironing pads that sell like hotcakes in America… Orders bound for all corners of the planet earth solely because A13 firmly remains “at the center” of the market, and therefore the world.
A13 srl
Via Giulio e Corrado Venini, 57
I-20127 Milano
Tel./Ph +39 022822614
Fax +39 022828650
Email: info@a13milano.com
www.a13milano.com
by Stefano Ferrio
Detergo Magazine July 2015
